Over half the countries in the world are now abolitionist in law or in practice. Since 1989 more than twenty countries and territories have abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes or for all crimes. They include countries and territories in Asia (Cambodia, Hong Kong), Africa (Angola, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa) and Latin America (Paraguay).

The nations of ASEAN [ ASEAN - the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - was established in 1967 with three main objectives: (1) to promote the economic, cultural and social development of the region (2) to safeguard regional peace and stability and (3) to serve as a forum for the resolution of intra-regional differences. The five original members are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined on gaining independence in 1984 and Viet Nam became the seventh member in July 1995.] are a notable exception to this trend. All retain the death penalty for a wide variety of crimes and in some countries - notably Singapore and Viet Nam - the number of executions is believed to have risen sharply in recent years.

Although there are known to have been high numbers of executions in some of the ASEAN countries, two have not carried out any executions for many years. Brunei Darussalam is not known to have executed any prisoners since 1957, leading observers to consider it abolitionist de facto. In the Philippines there have been no executions since 1976, although since 1994 more than 200 people have been sentenced to death and there are fears that executions may resume in 1997.

Other neighbouring countries have followed the worldwide trend towards abolition. Australia and New Zealand, both members of the ASEAN Regional Forum, abolished the death penalty in 1985 and 1989 respectively. Both countries have also acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a binding international agreement to abolish the death penalty. Cambodia abolished the death penalty in April 1989. Seven countries in the Pacific have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, one has abolished it for common crimes and three are abolitionist de facto.

A factor contributing to concern about the death penalty in ASEAN is the failure of ASEAN governments to release information about judicial executions carried out in their countries. In several of the countries executions have been carried out in secret. The lack of official statistics means that the true number of executions remains unknown. There is also very little public information about prisoners currently on death row in the majority of the countries.

Nationals of ASEAN member states have been executed or are currently under sentence of death in neighbouring ASEAN countries, a situation which has often caused an increase in the number of ASEAN voices - both government and non-government -against the death penalty.

One prominent case was the execution in Singapore of Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino domestic worker and mother of four children, who was convicted of murder. She was hanged in March 1995 despite international concern about the fairness of her trial and a last-minute appeal by President Ramos of the Philippines for clemency. Her execution caused public outrage in the Philippines and sparked a diplomatic row between Singapore and the Philippines, leading to both countries withdrawing their ambassadors for several months. In other cases, however, interventions by government officials on behalf of nationals of their state have been successful. A number of Indonesians sentenced to death in Malaysia, for example, have reportedly had their sentences commuted to prison terms following pressure from the Indonesian Government.

The tension created by the possible execution of each others' nationals prompted the Attorneys General of the ASEAN states to discuss this at a meeting in July 1995. Following the meeting the Attorneys General signed an ASEAN statement known as the Jakarta Consensus on Cooperation in the Legal Field, in which they agreed inter alia to exchange information on ASEAN nationals under sentence of death in each others countries. Amnesty International welcomes this new forum for discussion of the death penalty but hopes that it will lead not only to greater openness about all ASEAN nationals on death row in ASEAN countries, but also to debate about the use of the death penalty in the region.

Many people in Southeast Asia point to rising crime rates as a compelling reason to impose the death penalty. Indeed public anger at examples of the most heinous of crimes, such as the rape and murder of children, have fuelled support for punishment by execution, in countries such as the Philippines. There is justifiable concern within ASEAN about increasing drug addiction and drug-related crimes. Yet there is no convincing evidence to support the assertion that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than any other punishment. A survey of research findings on the relation between the death penalty and homicide rates, conducted for the United Nations in 1988 and updated in 1996, concluded that "[r]esearch has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment and such proof is unlikely to be forthcoming. The evidence as a whole still gives no positive support to the deterrent hypothesis...". [Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A World-wide Perspective, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996, page 238.]

Despite an array of harsh legislation and a high number of executions in the region for drug offences, both the supply of drugs and the level of addiction have continued to rise. Those executed for drugs offences tend to be at the lower levels of the narcotics trade and comprise mostly small-time addicts and individual couriers who are often ill-educated, young or economically vulnerable, while those who organize and profit from the crimes frequently escape capture and prosecution.

Another major concerns is that some ASEAN countries have enacted laws which undermine international norms for a fair trial, including for people who face the death penalty. In Malaysia and Singapore, for example, the presumption of innocence is weakened by the provision in certain laws that the possession of drugs shall be taken as evidence of trafficking unless the contrary is proved. Furthermore, in a number of the ASEAN countries there are mandatory death sentences for certain crimes which provide no leeway at all for mitigating circumstances. Foreigners, including nationals of other ASEAN states, may be tried for offences which carry the death penalty, but in some of the countries facilities for courtroom interpretation are inadequate or totally lacking, often in contravention of that countrys own legal procedures.

No criminal justice system in the world is completely immune to errors. Yet a single mistake which leads to the execution of an innocent person represents a shocking failure of justice. The risk of such failures may be heightened when justice systems are vulnerable to political pressure or to undue influence by the powerful or wealthy. The death penalty is often imposed on those with fewer resources available for their defence, or whose social status has made them vulnerable to unfair conviction. In some cases in the region, Amnesty International has recorded instances of executions of people who may well have been completely innocent of the crime for which they had been convicted.