International Mechanism Submissions

This report addresses Malaysia’s compliance with its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women with respect to the death penalty. Malaysia fails to uphold its obligations under the Convention, in particular by failing to ensure consideration of gender-specific mitigation factors in criminal proceedings, and by failing to ensure that women in detention live in adequate conditions, among others mentioned at the List of Issues stage.

Malaysia should adopt several key recommendations to better align its death penalty practices with its obligations under the Convention. These steps, among other things, include: (1) Ensure all women who have been sentenced to death, or who are at risk of being sentenced to death, have fair access to competent legal counsel at the time of arrest and throughout their legal proceedings; (2) Ensure the conditions of detention for all women adhere to the Bangkok Rules; (3) Establish transparent procedures for the review of pardon applications, so that the pardon process serves the purpose of being a meaningful safeguard of due process; and (4) Regularly publish full and detailed information—disaggregated by gender, nationality and ethnic background—about the use of the death penalty, and individuals on death row.