(London, April 17, 2026) - The Maldives government should withdraw plans to introduce a bill to end the longstanding moratorium on the death penalty in the country, 10 Maldivian and international human rights organizations said today. The authorities should also seek to repeal recent amendments to the Drugs Act of 2011 that allow capital punishment for drug-related offenses, maintain the moratorium on executions, and move to fully abolish the death penalty.

The groups are 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, Human Rights Watch, Maldivian Democracy Network, Parliamentarians for Global Action, and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. 

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on the Maldives, please visit: https://www.hrw.org/asia/maldives