PETALING JAYA: Despite South-East Asia having the harshest sentencing policies for drug offences, the region still sees a continued increase in drug-related offences, says the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights.
Andrew Gilmour said half of the 32 countries and territories in the world where drug crime can result in the death penalty were located in South-East Asia.
"We would like to achieve full abolition of the death penalty, we take that as a given, but the immediate end now is to find ways to engage with governments to reduce the number of executions, and to reduce the intense suffering for those convicted and their families when it comes to death row," he said in a statement on Wednesday (Feb 28).
He added that the UN wanted to do better at reaching pro-death penalty states in the region to discuss death penalty practices, taking into account a nation's obligations under international human rights law.
2018 marks the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN on Dec 10, 1948.