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Communist Vietnam's secret death penalty conveyor belt: How country trails only China and Iran for 'astonishing' number of executions

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Prisoners are dragged from their cells at 4am without warning to be given a lethal injection Vietnam's use of the death penalty has been thrust into the spotlight after a real estate tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to be executed in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history. Truong My Lan, a businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022.

A New Opportunity for the UN to Move Forward the Global Abolition of Death Penalty

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On the 2014 world day against the death penalty, Ban Ki Moon made a strong statement calling for global abolition. This declaration reflects a growing trend toward abolition, and yet 25 years after the adoption of the international treaty to abolish the death penalty, the level of ratification remains too low.

The United Nations’ commitment to eradicate the death penalty globally is quite evident. High Commissioners for Human Rights have consistently been calling on States to abolish and ratify the second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR OP2), which provides the best guarantee for sustainable and categorical abolition. 2014 was a particularly active year of UN engagement against the death penalty: in June, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution which highlights abolition as a recurrent item of its work. In October, the OHCHR launched a specific webpage and a compilation of the most recent arguments and trends for global abolition. Two Special Rapporteurs, Christof Heyns and Juan Mendez, have also been quite vocal in calling for abolition. With 98 countries having abolished death penalty for all crimes, the global abolition movement has never looked so strong.

Despite these positive developments, the reality of the situation remains alarming in various ways:
  • Only 81 states have ratified ICCPR OP2
  • Several countries such as Indonesia or the Gambia have in recent years resumed executions after multiyear moratoriums
  • The latest Amnesty International report on death penalty highlights a 15% increase in executions around the world compared to the previous year
  • A small number of countries continue to hold the record for most executions carried out, namely China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia

Source: Oxford Human Rights Hub, Vincent Ploton, December 16, 2014
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