TEMPO.CO, Jakarta -From Vietnam to Malaysia and Indonesia, Southeast Asian governments are narrowing the use of the death penalty and edging, often cautiously, toward abolition.
At present, eight of the 11 Southeast Asian countries retain the death penalty. Only Cambodia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste have abolished it in law.
But recent years have seen most of the retentionist states abide by de facto moratoriums on executions and pass new legislation so death is no longer the mandatory punishment for certain crimes.
The European Union has made abolition of the death penalty a flagship human rights goal in its diplomacy, backing UN moratorium resolutions. The bloc is also raising the issue in political dialogues and supporting civil-society advocacy, while acknowledging that progress is uneven and sometimes reversible.
"The EU is slowly but surely having success in some countries, at least in whittling down the number of crimes for which the penalty can be imposed," Phil Robertson, the director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates, told DW. "But it is not clear that progress will be sustained, so the EU would be wise to take nothing for granted."
Movement in the right direction
In 2025, Vietnam's National Assembly voted to remove the death penalty for eight offenses, taking the list of death-eligible crimes from 18 down to 10. The reforms also provided for existing death sentences for those offenses to be commuted to life imprisonment.
The move was framed domestically as part of an overhaul that would also make it easier to cooperate internationally in corruption and extradition cases, though Vietnam continues to treat data on death sentences and executions as a state secret.
In 2023, Malaysia abolished the mandatory death penalty, giving greater leeway to judges to impose prison sentences for crimes that would have previously carried mandatory capital punishment. In November 2025, the Malaysian government announced the establishment of a Policy and Direction Review working group to examine the total abolition, with work expected to begin in early 2026.
If Indonesia doesn't carry out any executions in 2026, it will be considered a de facto abolitionist state, having not executed anyone for 10 consecutive years.
Indonesia's new Criminal Code, which took effect on January 2, 2026, classifies the death penalty as a special, last-resort punishment. It also allows judges to impose a 10-year probation period, after which a death sentence may be commuted to life imprisonment if the convict shows rehabilitation and good conduct.
In late 2024, Thailand's government rejected a proposal by the National Human Rights Commission seeking to abolish the death penalty. The last execution in Thailand was carried out in 2018.
"We do believe that our dialogues have contributed to steps in the right direction, at least in some Southeast Asian countries," an EU spokesperson, who did not want to be named, told DW.
"The process to achieve full abolishment can take time, but every small step counts. And the pressure towards this goal counts too," the spokesperson added.
"We remain, nevertheless, deeply concerned over the increase in executions in Southeast Asia, specifically for drug offenses in the past few years. Drug-related offenses do not meet the minimum standard of 'most serious crimes' set by international human rights law, which only refers to crimes of extreme gravity, involving intentional killing."
Singapore 'doubling down on the death penalty'
Singapore has become something of an outlier in the region since it is "very enthusiastically doubling down on the death penalty and carrying out executions at an alarming rate," Kirsten Han, a Singaporean journalist and prominent campaigner against capital punishment, told DW.
There have already been three executions so far this year in the city-state, "and I don't think they will be easing off," added Han.
Last year, Singapore executed 17 people, the highest number since 2003.
The vast majority of cases are for drug-trafficking offenses, typically involving quantities above statutory thresholds.
In December 2025, Singapore's High Court rejected a constitutional challenge to the mandatory death penalty for certain drug offenses brought by relatives of executed prisoners and abolitionist campaigners, leaving the legal framework intact.
While the government frequently cites public opinion studies that show capital punishment is broadly popular among Singaporeans, a 2016 study by the National University of Singapore found limited public knowledge about how capital punishment is applied: 62% of Singaporean respondents said they knew "little" or "nothing" about the country's death penalty use.
The EU has repeatedly criticized Singapore's continued use of capital punishment, and in January, joined Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom to issue a joint statement calling on Singapore's government to halt a pending execution and embrace abolitionism.
"The death penalty is incompatible with the inalienable right to life and the absolute prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment," the statement said.
According to Han, the campaigner, such statements don't have much impact, and local media in the city-state are not covering them.
"I can't tell other countries what to do—and am conscious of the speed at which the Singaporean government can jump on activists and accuse us of 'inviting foreign interference' into the country—but at this time I feel like 'values-led foreign policy' is generally in short supply," Han said.
Push back against UN's call for moratorium on death penalty
Singapore has often pushed back against external criticism by asserting its sovereign right to determine its laws in accordance with its national context and public interest.
In 2024, the UN General Assembly voted on a draft resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty globally. Some 131 member states voted in favor of the moratorium, while 21 abstained. Singapore was one of the 36 member states that voted "No" to the resolution.
Singapore was also among the countries that pushed for the inclusion of an amendment emphasizing "the sovereign right of all countries to develop their own legal systems, including determining appropriate legal penalties."
However, except for Singapore, the broader regional trend in Southeast Asia has been toward restricting the scope of capital punishment, even if most retentionist states have stopped short of full abolition.
Robertson, of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates, said that Southeast Asian governments are "still playing games rather than showing a real determination to end use of the death penalty once and for all."
This is why, he underlined, abolitionist states like Australia and the EU member states "must push harder for Southeast Asian governments to show real political commitment."
Read: 150 Indonesians Facing Death Penalty in Malaysia for Serious Crimes
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