Today, October 10, is the world day against the death penalty. Out of 196 UN member states, 94 still permit capital punishment. Today is the day we work to change that.
This year's theme is the use of the death penalty for drug crimes. 33 countries still retain the death penalty for drug offences, though most executions are carried out by a handful of asian or Muslim states (China, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Vietnam). Some impose it as a mandatory sentence. But the death penalty is never justifiable, and it certainly doesn't deter these offences. And in the case of applying it to drug users, killing people for suffering from an addiction is simply monstrous.
