Monash co-hosts conference on pathways to ending the death penalty in Asia
Experts, policymakers and advocates will meet in Malaysia on Monday 26 October to discuss legal and policy reform on capital punishment.
Legal experts, policymakers and civil society representatives will meet in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, on Monday 26 October for a conference on ending the death penalty in Asia, co-organised by Monash University.
According to Monash, Asia accounts for more than 40 per cent of the global death-row population, and the Asia-Pacific region is home to the highest number of countries that retain the death penalty, including some of the world's most actively executing states.
The conference, Ending the Death Penalty in Asia: Reform Pathways, Comparative Perspectives, and Path Forward, will look at how countries can move beyond debates over individual cases towards practical pathways for legal and policy reform.
Who is involved
The conference is organised by Monash University Malaysia, Eleos Justice at Monash Law, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Rashid Zulkifli Advocates and Solicitors, in partnership with the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN).
Speakers will include:
- Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, former president of the Philippines
- Aqeel Malik, Pakistan's Minister of State for Law and Justice
- Ramkarpal Singh, Member of Parliament in Malaysia
- Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
What will be discussed
Four panels are planned:
- legal, political and institutional pathways towards abolition in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea
- mitigation, including the suffering experienced by people on death row, the disproportionate impact of capital punishment on marginalised and vulnerable communities, and emerging jurisprudence
- drug-related offences, examining the use of capital punishment in drug policy and considering public health and other policy alternatives
- the obstacles that continue to impede abolition, with comparative perspectives on retention and reform in jurisdictions including Singapore, Japan and Taiwan.
What the organisers say
Ms Sara Kowal, Co-Director of Eleos Justice at Monash Law, said that as executions continue across Asia, particularly for drug-related offences, countries in the region have lessons to share on reform.
“Reform in one country shows us what is possible in the next. Malaysia’s abolition of the mandatory death penalty and its resentencing exercise offer the region a working model that values rehabilitation,” Ms Kowal said.
“Indonesia has now gone ten years without an execution, and Vietnam has reduced the number of crimes punishable by death.”
She said the conference would add an academic forum to years of cross-border work by ADPAN and other civil society groups, “bringing together scholars, lawmakers, lawyers and advocates to share what has worked, be honest about what hasn’t, and turn those lessons into progress towards abolition.”
Dr Thaatchaayini Kananatu, Deputy Head of School (Research) at the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, and Co-Director of Eleos Justice, said the death penalty for drug offences across Asia “is often justified through a ‘war on drugs’ national narrative that presents it as a deterrent or a form of retribution, an ‘eye for an eye’.”
“This political framing overlooks the disproportionate impact of capital punishment on marginalised communities, particularly people from low-income backgrounds and those with less educational and psychosocial support,” she said.
“This regional conference asks a difficult but necessary question: how can Asia move beyond the death penalty?”
Sources: Monash University media release, “Conference to explore pathways to ending the death penalty in Asia”, issued to media by email on 23 October 2026; Monash University, conference page. Source: Monash University media release, 23 October 2026 (conference page: https://www.monash.edu/news/events/ending-the-death-penalty-in-asia-reform-pathways,-comparative-perspectives,-and-path-forward). Illustrations: The Dosage.