[JURIST] UN rights experts urged the Philippines legislature on Thursday to reject a proposed death penalty bill that would reintroduce capital punishment for drug-related offenses. Specifically, the bill authorizes death penalty for the “import, sale, manufacture, delivery and distribution” of narcotics and for crimes committed under the influence of dangerous drugs.” Special Rapporteurs, Agnes Callamard and Nils Melzer [official profiles] stated:

This is clearly not permitted under international law, which requires that even States retaining the death penalty may impose it only for the most serious crimes, that is, those involving intentional killing. Drug related offences do not meet this threshold … the lack of any persuasive evidence that the death penalty contributes more than any other punishment to reducing criminality or drug-trafficking. Therefore, reintroducing this punishment as a deterrent for drug-trafficking is as illegal as it is futile.

Callamard and Melzer particularly pointed to the severe physical and mental pain and suffering, and inherent indignity caused to human beings due to the nature of death penalty as a punishment. The bill was passed [JURIST report] earlier this month by the House of Representatives and is now in the Senate for approval.

Earlier this week the 11 representatives who voted against the bill were removed [Reuters report] from key positions, as an apparent follow through of speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s [official profile] promise to punish those who voted against the death penalty bill. The human rights situation in the Philippines has come under international scrutiny, specifically as it relates to the the nation’s declared war on drugs. In February Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International [advocacy websites] criticized the extrajudicial killings [JURIST report] in the Philippines as part of the war on drugs in the country. In January President Rodrigo Duterte, who was elected last May after campaigning on a promise to be extremely harsh on drug users, announced the suspension [JURIST report] of the island nation’s “war on drugs.” Also in January the president said he planed to declare martial law [JURIST report] if the country’s drug problem becomes “very virulent.”