The Advocates for Human Rights, together with the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, submitted a joint stakeholder report addressing the death penalty in Brunei for the 33^rd Session of the Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review.

Brunei Darussalam is considered to be a de facto abolitionist state with no reported executions since 1957, but since the last UPR courts have sentenced two people, both foreign nationals, to death by hanging. The government has also begun implementing the Syariah Penal Code Order, 2013 which calls for a mandatory death penalty by stoning for various crimes, including crimes that do not entail an intentional killing.

The authors of the report propose the following recommendations for the Government of Brunei Darussalam:

• Immediately adopt a formal moratorium on the death penalty;
• Ratify the Convention Against Torture;
• Prohibit imposition of the death penalty for any crime in which the person accused is not proven to have committed an intentional killing, consistent with international human rights standards;
• Eliminate the mandatory death penalty and give sentencing judges discretionary authority to impose alternate penalties, taking into account the facts and circumstances of the crime and the defendant;
• Repeal Phase 3 of the Syariah Penal Code Order, 2013 and amend the Code to bring it in line with the Convention Against Torture and international human rights standards regarding the death penalty.