Harm reduction and the death penalty: submission to the Special Rapporteur on the right to health Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health

This submission focuses on the continued use of the death penalty for drug offences, which undermines efforts to implement harm reduction initiatives. The use of criminal sanctions, including the death penalty, not only results in more harms than those they seek to prevent, but also fails to reduce drug use and trafficking. The use of the death penalty for drug-related offences is a violation of international human rights law. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights restricts the application of the death penalty to the ‘most serious crimes’, understood as ‘intentional killing’, thus excluding the imposition of the death penalty to drug offences.