Rights Groups Urge Maldives to Drop Proposed Death Penalty Plans

Ten international and local rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, have called on the Government of the Maldives to withdraw proposed legislation to end the country’s long-standing moratorium on the death penalty. 

The organisations include the Advocates for Human Rights, Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, Capital Punishment Justice Project, ECPM: Together Against the Death Penalty, International Federation for Human Rights, Harm Reduction International, Maldivian Democracy Network, Parliamentarians for Global Action and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

In a joint statement, the groups said authorities should also repeal recent amendments to the Drugs Act that allow capital punishment for drug-related offences, maintain the moratorium, and move toward full abolition of the death penalty. 

The groups warned that the proposed law would violate the Maldives’ obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the country acceded to in 2006, as well as United Nations resolutions calling for restrictions on the use of capital punishment.

Their call follows remarks by Mohamed Muizzu on March 23, that the government intends to submit a bill to the People’s Majlis to facilitate implementation of the death penalty following amendments to the Drugs Act, which Muizzu ratified in 2025. The amended Act extends the scope of capital punishment to include drug trafficking. The Attorney General’s Office is currently finalising the draft legislation. 

Under the changes, individuals convicted of trafficking large quantities of drugs—such as more than 350 grams of cannabis, 250 grams of diamorphine, or 100 grams of other illicit substances—may face the death penalty.

Muizzu said that once ratified, the law would allow for the immediate enforcement of death sentences against individuals who have completed all stages of the judicial process.

Rights groups said introducing capital punishment for offences that previously did not carry the death penalty contradicts international standards, which restrict its use to the “most serious crimes.” United Nations experts have consistently stated that drug-related offences do not meet this threshold.

The Maldives has maintained a moratorium on executions since 1954, with no executions carried out since 1952. Rights groups warned that reinstating capital punishment would run counter to global trends, noting that more than two-thirds of United Nations member states voted in favour of a death penalty moratorium in 2024.

The organisations urged the government to withdraw the proposed bill and called on lawmakers to reject it if submitted, instead taking steps to abolish the death penalty and commute existing death sentences.