Tuesday, 10 March 2026 (London, UK) – A new report released today reveals a catastrophic 97% surge in executions for drug-related offences in 2025, with at least 1,212 people executed worldwide in 2025 – the highest figure recorded since monitoring began in 2007.

The report, The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2025, published by Harm Reduction International (HRI), warns that punitive drug control has become a primary driver of the death penalty globally. Drug-related executions now account for nearly half of all confirmed executions worldwide. The true scale is likely far greater than what is known, due to a lack of transparency and state secrecy in China, North Korea and Vietnam.

A Global Crisis of Escalation

The 2025 data signal a dangerous reversal of progress toward abolition:

• Regressive legal developments: For the first time in over a decade, the number of countries retaining the death penalty for drug offences increased to 36, after Algeria and the Maldives amended their laws to introduce the practice.
• Record spikes: Iran carried out at least 955 drug-related executions and Saudi Arabia saw drug-related executions increase by 97% compared to the previous year.
• Death row population: At least 2,450 people remain on death row for drug offences across 22 countries, with many facing imminent execution.

Catherine Cook, Acting Executive Director of Harm Reduction International said: “The year 2025 was an exceptionally brutal one for global drug control. We are witnessing a sharp escalation in the use of the death penalty by a small but resolute group of countries.”

International Failure and Complicity

HRI raises urgent concerns regarding the role of international bodies. The report specifically questions whether the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is at risk of complicity in human rights violations, as it continues to support drug law enforcement in Iran despite the record-breaking execution figures.

“The international community’s long-standing failure to hold executing states accountable has moved beyond negligence and now borders complicity. By maintaining ‘business as usual’—and in the case of the UNODC, continuing to fund enforcement in countries like Iran—global institutions are effectively subsidising a record-breaking surge in state-sanctioned killing. We can no longer ignore that the ‘war on drugs’ has become a primary engine for the global death penalty,” added Cook.

Disproportionate Impact on the Vulnerable

The report highlights that capital drug laws continue to target vulnerable individuals and communities.

• Foreign Nationals & Minorities: At least 271 foreign nationals and 338 people from ethnic minorities were among those executed for drug offences in 2025.
• Gendered Impact: At least 23 women were known to have been executed for drug offences during the year.

The report will be officially launched at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) on Thursday 12 March 2026 at 1-2 pm in Room M2 of the Vienna International Centre and online at https://bit.ly/DPCND69​

Speakers:

• E. Tsengeg Mijiddorj,Ambassador of Mongolia to the UN in Vienna,
• Mr Aqeel Malik, Minister of State for Law and Justice, Pakistan
• E. Edmund Bon Tai Soon, Representative of Malaysia to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights and Head of Chambers at AmerBon, a leading law firm engaging in civil, criminal, and human rights litigation in Malaysia.
• Dr Mai Sato, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Director of the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London.
• Giada Girelli, Senior Analyst at Harm Reduction International, working on issues at the intersection of human rights and drug control.

Further information: For copies of the report and interview requests, please contact suchitra.rajagopalan@hri.global

About Harm Reduction International (HRI)

Harm Reduction International is an NGO with Special Consultative Status with the UN ECOSOC. We use data and advocacy to promote drug policies that uphold dignity, health and rights.