A growing number of member states across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are actively reducing the scope and application of capital punishment, shifting regional momentum toward abolition and leaving Singapore increasingly isolated as a regular executing power.
Ahead of the World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10, Amnesty International released a briefing titled Changing Tides: Reform and resistance on the death penalty in ASEAN. The report details how two decades of reforms and decreases in executions across the 11 ASEAN member states have moved the region closer in line with abolitionist nations Cambodia, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste.
Shifting Horizons Across the Eleven Member States
The regional landscape has transformed significantly over the past twenty years, moving steadily away from the bloc’s historical reliance on capital punishment. Indonesia marked ten years without carrying out an execution earlier this year, while Malaysia and Thailand are positioned to reach the same milestone in 2027 and 2028, respectively, according to amnestyusa.org.
Brunei Darussalam and Laos have also maintained prolonged hiatuses in executions, applying death sentences only sparingly in recent decades. Meanwhile, Viet Nam has pursued legislative reforms projected to reduce its total number of capital offences from 18 to just four over a span of slightly more than a year, amnestyusa.org noted.
“Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam are leading the new wave of reforms as they continue to narrow the scope of the death penalty,” said Joshua Ericsson, Executive Director of Amnesty International Malaysia, as reported by amnestyusa.org. “If the tide continues to turn, we will see a significant decrease in the number of people facing execution.”
The Divergent Path of Remaining Executing States
Despite the broader regional shift, a small subset of countries remains staunchly committed to capital punishment. Myanmar’s military authorities resumed judicial executions in 2022 following more than thirty years of disuse, subsequently expanding the scope of capital offenses through 2025 and 2026, amnestyusa.org reported.
Singapore stands out as the only ASEAN member state that regularly carries out executions and openly opposes substantive penal reform. Authorities in Singapore recorded 19 executions as of September 30, 2026, all involving drug-related offenses. That figure surpasses the 17 executions documented in 2025 and more than doubles the nine recorded in 2024, according to amnestyusa.org.
“The number of executing countries across ASEAN has steadily decreased, with just Myanmar, Singapore and Viet Nam recording executions in the past five years,” Ericsson stated, as detailed by idpc.net. He emphasized that this trend accentuates the isolation of governments that defend the practice as uniquely essential for public safety.
International human rights monitors continue to document mandatory death sentences in Singapore, largely tied to drug trafficking charges and frequently stemming from proceedings that fail to meet international fair trial standards. Alongside these judicial actions, human rights organizations note that local authorities have intensified pressure on activists and campaigners challenging the death penalty.
“When human rights are put at the centre of criminal justice responses, the foundations of the death penalty begin to crack,” Ericsson added, urging governments to transition from temporary hiatuses toward formal legal moratoriums and eventual full abolition, idpc.net reported.
