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By Alyssa Schams, International Justice Summer Legal Intern and 3L at University of Michigan Law School

Though Laos hasn't executed anyone since 1989, and is thus abolitionist in practice, it still retains the death penalty in its laws and has approximately 315 people on death row.(1) Laos reliably notes Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recommendations directly regarding the death penalty, including 16 recommendations during the previous UPR cycle.(2) Why does a country that hasn't carried out the death penalty in 35 years cling to it so vehemently?  

Laotian authorities justify the death penalty primarily as a deterrent for the drug-related offenses. Though there are a variety of crimes eligible for the death penalty in Laos, in 2023, Lieutenant General Vilay Lakhamfong, Laos' Minister of Public Security, stated that about 90% of Laos' death row sentences were for drug-related offenses.(3) Laos, along with Thailand and Myanmar, is home to the infamous Golden Triangle region, near the convergence of the three countries' borders, which is a popular drug production and trafficking zone.(4) Criminal organizations operate with near impunity in the Golden Triangle, and the area is very hard for the Laotian government to police due to its remoteness, terrain, and a lack of international cooperation.(5) Corruption in Laos and neighboring countries also serves to make enforcement of anti-drug production and trafficking laws difficult.(6) 

Drug production and trafficking in the Golden Triangle are directly linked to drug addiction. The high supply of drugs causes methamphetamine pills to be sold for less than 25 cents, which is cheaper than food, water, or beer.(7) Drug addiction causes social problems for Laos, including family strife, criminal activity, and the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases.(8) It also burdens the public health and justice systems.(9) 

As a result of the negative impacts of drug production and trafficking by criminal syndicates, as well as the scourge of drug addiction, many Laotians have advocated for an end to the moratorium on the death penalty. Stakeholders argue that if there is a harsher penalty for drug production, trafficking or use, fewer people will do so.(10) For example, a Laotian interviewed by Radio Free Asia stated that "inmates with death sentences should be executed right away if a court verdict orders an execution, and the law should be decisive and trustworthy... if they do not execute them, then those who are in drug businesses right now will not fear the law, and that will undermine the country's judicial system."(11) The national government's stated position is that "the death penalty for drug dealers is one of the most powerful deterrents to those who choose to commit drug crimes."(12) This attitude is not restricted to Laos: stakeholders in other nations in Southeast Asia have expressed pro-death penalty or neutral stances because they want to retain the death penalty for drug crimes.(13) 

Despite the Laotian government's perspective on drug trafficking and the death penalty, decades of failed policies worldwide have taught us that the death penalty and the "zero-tolerance" method are not effective methods of solving persistent crime. In the case of drug trafficking, it also serves to criminalize, and thus further stigmatize, vulnerable addicts. Southeast Asian nations impacted by Golden Triangle drug production and trafficking have tried to limit the supply of drugs by seizing them and sentencing traffickers to lengthy prison sentences.(14) For instance, between 2015 and 2019, Laos arrested 20,221 people for drug-related issues and confiscated "about 943 kilograms of heroin, over 10,000 kilograms of cannabis, over 6,000 kilograms of amphetamine tablets, over 8,000 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine (ice), 577 kilograms of opium."(15) Since then, Laos has seized even more drugs, breaking the record for most methamphetamine pills seized in both 2021 and 2022.(16) The seizure strategy has failed, since the supply of these drugs is essentially infinite given the high demand for them and the high profit available to drug producers and traffickers.(17) Further, arrests can be arbitrary, and often target low-level members of the drug trade, not high-level leaders of the criminal organizations.(18) 

Additionally, Laos' use of the death penalty in not in compliance with international law. Authorizing the death penalty for drug-related crimes does not meet the threshold of the "most serious" crimes, an international standard set by the Human Rights Committee referring to an intentional killing of one person by another.(19) Further, it is possible that women defendants in capital cases face gender-based discrimination. While Laos does not publish transparent information about women defendants in capital cases or gender-disaggregated data about people under sentence of death, studies have shown that, globally, women defendants face intersecting forms of discrimination in drug-related capital cases.(20) Women are often more vulnerable than male co-defendants, and are likely to be sentenced to death for criminal offenses committed within the context of gender-based violence or coercive relationships with male co-defendants.(21) For example, women are often forced to be low-level drug mules because they are less likely to be caught, but make this decision under coercion or without full knowledge of what they are doing.(22)  

Instead of using the drug trade to justify the death penalty, human rights advocates argue that Laos should focus on reducing the demand for drugs by using evidence-based harm reduction approaches that focus on decriminalizing drug addiction and providing social services to addicts.(23) Advocates believe this will help ameliorate the negative societal impacts of drug addiction, as well as reduce demand for opiates and methamphetamine produced through organized crime.(24) Additionally, strategies focused on dismantling criminal syndicates, instead of stopping drug production and distribution, should be attempted to prevent international drug trafficking.(25) The death penalty is a cruel human rights violation that targets some of Laos' most vulnerable people, and these comprehensive solutions aim to address the drug trade from a human rights perspective. 

For more information on the death penalty in Laos, please see the Advocates for Human Rights' reports on this issue, including a forthcoming report for the Universal Periodic Review, a 2023 List of Issues report for the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and a forthcoming shadow report for CEDAW focused on the intersection of gender and the death penalty. 

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[1] World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, "Lao People's Democratic Republic," accessed August 2, 2024, https://worldcoalition.org/pays/lao-peoples-democratic-republic/.
[2] Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Lao People's Democratic Republic, (Mar. 17, 2020), U.N. Doc. A/HRC/44/6; Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Lao People's Democratic Republic: Addendum, (Sept. 16, 2020), U.N. Doc. A/HRC/44/6/Add. 1.  
[3] Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, "Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos)," accessed August 2, 2024, https://deathpenaltyworldwide.org/database/#/results/country?id=40; Radio Free Lao, Weak Laws in Laos Mean Death-Row Inmates Won't Face Execution Anytime Soon, Radio Free Asia, July 7, 2023, https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/death-row-inmates-07072023161103.html.
[4] Radio Free Lao, Weak Laws in Laos Mean Death-Row Inmates Won't Face Execution Anytime Soon, Radio Free Asia, July 7, 2023, https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/death-row-inmates-07072023161103.html.
[5] UNODC Regional Office for South Asia and the Pacific, "Policing One of the World's 'Biggest Drug Trafficking Corridors,'" June 29, 2023, https://www.unodc.org/roseap/en/2023/06/biggest-drug-trafficking-corridors/story.html.
[6] Kevin Doyle, Q&A: The Opium Surge in Southeast Asia's 'Golden Triangle,' Al Jazeera, Feb. 18, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/18/qa-un-rep-on-opium-boom-in-golden-triangle.
[7] Alastair McCready, 'Cheaper than Beer': Laos Meth Prices Plummet as Myanmar Chaos Fuels Trade, Al Jazeera, Nov. 7, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7/cheaper-than-beer-laos-meth-prices-plummet-as-myanmar-chaos-fuels-trade.
[8] Laotian Times, Lao Government Declares Drug Problem a National Agenda, May 17, 2021, https://laotiantimes.com/2021/05/17/lao-government-declares-drug-problem-a-national-agenda/; Hai Thanh Luong, Drug Production, Consumption, and Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region, 59 Asian Survey 717, 724 (2019).
[9] Hai Thanh Luong, Drug Production, Consumption, and Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region, 59 Asian Survey 717, 724 (2019).
[10] Radio Free Lao, Weak Laws in Laos Mean Death-Row Inmates Won't Face Execution Anytime Soon, Radio Free Asia, July 7, 2023, https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/death-row-inmates-07072023161103.html.
[11] Radio Free Lao, Weak Laws in Laos Mean Death-Row Inmates Won't Face Execution Anytime Soon, Radio Free Asia, July 7, 2023, https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/death-row-inmates-07072023161103.html.
[12] Laotian Times, Lao Government Declares Drug Problem a National Agenda, May 17, 2021, https://laotiantimes.com/2021/05/17/lao-government-declares-drug-problem-a-national-agenda/.
[13] Sebastian Strangio, "Explaining Southeast Asia's Addiction to the Death Penalty," The Diplomat, Nov. 25, 2020, https://thediplomat.com/2020/11/explaining-southeast-asias-addiction-to-the-death-penalty/.
[14] Kevin Doyle, Q&A: The Opium Surge in Southeast Asia's 'Golden Triangle,' Al Jazeera, Feb. 18, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/18/qa-un-rep-on-opium-boom-in-golden-triangle.
[15] Laotian Times, Lao Government Declares Drug Problem a National Agenda, May 17, 2021, https://laotiantimes.com/2021/05/17/lao-government-declares-drug-problem-a-national-agenda/.
[16] Alastair McCready, 'Cheaper than Beer': Laos Meth Prices Plummet as Myanmar Chaos Fuels Trade, Al Jazeera, Nov. 7, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7/cheaper-than-beer-laos-meth-prices-plummet-as-myanmar-chaos-fuels-trade.
[17] Alastair McCready, 'Cheaper than Beer': Laos Meth Prices Plummet as Myanmar Chaos Fuels Trade, Al Jazeera, Nov. 7, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7/cheaper-than-beer-laos-meth-prices-plummet-as-myanmar-chaos-fuels-trade; Kevin Doyle, Q&A: The Opium Surge in Southeast Asia's 'Golden Triangle,' Al Jazeera, Feb. 18, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/18/qa-un-rep-on-opium-boom-in-golden-triangle.
[18] Alastair McCready, 'Cheaper than Beer': Laos Meth Prices Plummet as Myanmar Chaos Fuels Trade, Al Jazeera, Nov. 7, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7/cheaper-than-beer-laos-meth-prices-plummet-as-myanmar-chaos-fuels-trade.
[19] United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, "UN Experts Call for Universal Abolition of the Death Penalty," Oct. 10, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/un-experts-call-universal-abolition-death-penalty#:~:text=The%20international%20standard%20is%20clear,the%20Grenadines%20%E2%80%93%20follow%20the%20standard.
[20] Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Judged for More Than Her Crime: A Global Overview of Women Facing the Death Penalty (2018), 12, https://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Judged-More-Than-Her-Crime.pdf.
[21] Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Judged for More Than Her Crime: A Global Overview of Women Facing the Death Penalty (2018), 12, https://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Judged-More-Than-Her-Crime.pdf.
[22] Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Judged for More Than Her Crime: A Global Overview of Women Facing the Death Penalty (2018), 12, https://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Judged-More-Than-Her-Crime.pdf.
[23] Dainius Puras and Julie Hannah, Reasons for Drug Policy Reform: Prohibition Enables Systemic Human Rights Abuses and Undermines Public Health, 356 British Medical Journal (2017).
[24] Dainius Puras and Julie Hannah, Reasons for Drug Policy Reform: Prohibition Enables Systemic Human Rights Abuses and Undermines Public Health, 356 British Medical Journal (2017).
[25] Kevin Doyle, Q&A: The Opium Surge in Southeast Asia's 'Golden Triangle,' Al Jazeera, Feb. 18, 2023, https://w