Brunei - Compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (LOI) - Death Penalty - September 2025
Country: Brunei Darussalam
Partners: World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Issues: Death Penalty, Gender-Based Violence, Women's Rights
Mechanism: UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
Report Type: List of Issues
The Committee last reviewed Brunei Darussalam’s compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 2014.
Little to no information is available about the various aspects of the death penalty as applied to women in Brunei Darussalam. The absence of data about women subject to the death penalty may obscure ways in which Brunei Darussalam’s death penalty practices have disparate impacts on women or arise out of a discriminatory criminal legal system.
Brunei has not carried out any executions since 1957 and therefore is de facto abolitionist. Yet authorities still have the power to sentence women to death for crimes that are not the most serious under international law. Women face institutionalized discrimination at many stages of the criminal legal system, putting them at an increased risk of being sentenced to death. Brunei Darussalam has also failed to address gender-based violence, placing women at risk of coming into conflict with the law for capital crimes. To date, Brunei Darussalam does not appear to have taken any steps toward a de jure moratorium on executions.
This report suggests questions for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to pose to the Government of Brunei Darussalam in its List of Issues Prior to Reporting, particularly with respect to the administration of the death penalty against women.
