Women, drug policy and the death penalty - Submission to OHCHR for report on the impact of drug policies on women and girls

Harm Reduction International, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Kenya Human Rights Commission and Women and Harm Reduction International Network welcome the opportunity to provide input to OHCHR’s 2026 report on the impact of drug policies on the rights of women and girls, to be presented at the 63rd session of the Human Rights Council.

The submission focuses on the use of the death penalty in the implementation of drug laws, arguing that drug offences do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes” under international law. It also highlights the persistent lack of comprehensive, gender-disaggregated data on death sentences, executions and death row populations for drug offences.

The authors note that, of the 36 countries that prescribe the death penalty for drug offences in 2026, only Thailand regularly publishes official figures on women on death row for drug offences. They also warn that information on the personal background and trial history of people sentenced to death remains extremely limited, preventing fuller analysis of the gendered pathways that lead women into contact with capital drug laws.

The submission documents a rise in known drug-related executions of women, including a record 23 women executed for drug offences in 2025. It also identifies recurring patterns among women facing capital punishment for drug offences, including low-level and high-risk roles in the drug market, economic insecurity, coercion or manipulation, gender-based violence, stereotypical narratives in court, and inadequate access to consular assistance, legal defence and interpretation.

The authors call on OHCHR to recommend that states impose a moratorium on executions, abolish the death penalty for drug offences, end the mandatory death penalty, implement the Bangkok Rules, ensure gender-sensitive consideration of mitigation evidence, expand diversion from the criminal justice system, and centre directly impacted women, trans people and non-binary people in policy decisions.