WTC Wrap: The imposition of silence

Strictly speaking, it's not really a wrap this time because I only focus on one issue. But I just really want to direct everyone's attention to what's happening!

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On Thursday, The Straits Times carried an AFP story (on its website, if not in print) about Iran hanging two men for "membership in separatist terrorist groups". Iran is one of the world's top executioners; in their latest report on death sentences and executions, Amnesty International found that Iran had been the main driver of a significant increase in executions globally in 2026:

The Iranian authorities continued to weaponize the death penalty, often after grossly unfair trials, to instil fear among the population and punish those who challenged, or are perceived to have challenged, the Islamic Republic of Iran establishment.

Which is to say, it makes sense to pay attention to when, and how often, Iran kills. But what was striking about ST picking up on the Iranian story is that they, Singapore's main English-language newspaper and website, did not report that our country had also hanged someone that same day—a 32-year-old Singaporean man convicted of drug offences. Nor did they report that Singapore hanged another man—a 53-year-old Singaporean—just a day later, even though the ST website did run two wire service stories about an execution in Tennessee that had been aborted after officials failed to find a suitable vein to administer out the lethal injection.

The executions carried out in Changi Prison on Thursday and Friday morning are Singapore's 11th and 12th executions so far this year. Last year, Singapore executed 17 people, the highest number since 2003. We're already about 70% of the way to hitting that same number again, and we're only five months into 2026.

I don't know how many Singaporeans know this about our own country. Although the Central Narcotics Bureau have been publishing statements announcing executions—and justifying them—since 2022, they're usually not picked up by the local mainstream press. It seems like only those of us who look out anxiously for such announcements know of their existence.

Announcements of executions published on the Central Narcotics Bureau this year so far.

This is, increasingly, how I've found out about executions this year. It feels like a major step backwards.

When Singapore resumed executions in 2022, the Transformative Justice Collective managed to report on every single one before they happened. We didn't always go into a lot of detail—that's always dependent on how well we know the person on death row or their family, and what they're comfortable with and willing to consent to—but we'd at least been able to flag on social media that execution notices had been issued and keep track of what was happening.

This was possible largely because we were in contact with multiple families who were willing and able to convey information, and because the men on death row kept close tabs on one another's cases and often wanted the public to know what was going on. There were multiple occasions where we didn't actually know the prisoner or their family, but would still hear about an imminent execution because at least one (and often more than one) guy would tell their families during Saturday or Monday visits that a notice had been issued.

This is no longer the case. The men who'd been most active in the fight against the death penalty, motivating their fellow prisoners, providing information about death row conditions, encouraging their families to speak out—men like Syed, Datch, and Pannir—are now all gone. The family members that I and TJC have known for the longest, and therefore developed closer relationships with, no longer make trips to Changi Prison, because there is no one left to visit.

We are less familiar with the people still on death row, or their families. My impression is that the families of current death row prisoners are themselves less familiar with one another, not as networked or tight-knit as previous families who'd run into one another during visitation days over and over again for years. I've been told that, since the pandemic, the prison has been much stricter about restricting people's ability to mingle, making it harder for a death row community of prisoners and families to develop. Based on what we've been able to gather from families last year, conditions on death row have also changed, making it more challenging for the men—who are kept in solitary cells—to communicate with one another. All in all, it's now much, much harder for activists to gather information.

Executions carried out in Singapore since independence logged in a calendar, displayed in four quarters.

Singapore's calendar year is littered with the death anniversaries of the people we've killed. Since independence in 1965, we've executed more than 500 people. Over the years there have been high-profile cases here and there, but, on the whole, how much do Singaporeans even know about this death-dealing system, or the people sacrificed at the gallows, supposedly for our collective good?

Storytelling has been a huge part of the anti-death penalty movement. Capital punishment is fundamentally dehumanising, and Singapore's war on drugs encourages us to see people convicted of drug offences not as people, but as "criminals", "traffickers", villains unworthy of redemption or sympathy. By naming people on death row, publishing photos, and sharing their life stories and experiences, abolitionists restore humanity to the conversation, forcing everyone to confront the fact that the death penalty is about very deliberate and intentional killing of real people. For most people, the death penalty is an abstract, faraway issue; these stories bring the issue closer to home. They encourage questioning, discussion, and empathy.

I believe that the state recognises this, and that what we're seeing are (unfortunately effective) efforts to suppress the anti-death penalty movement's access and ability to tell more of such stories. By doing so, they can shield themselves from scrutiny and criticism, and keep the death penalty out of public discourse as much as possible. That it robs Singaporeans of an understanding of what the state is doing in our names, and what that says about the truth of the society we live in, is simply not a priority (or even a consideration) to those who seek to retain the power to decide who deserves to live.

Singapore's fourth Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council saw 41 recommendations from member-states related to the death penalty.

On top of dehumanising people on death row by keeping them nameless, faceless, and voiceless, death penalty discourse in Singapore is also suppressed through censorship and obfuscation. As mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter, the mainstream media doesn't report on executions—whether this is a top-down decision, or yet another example of a failure that benefits the powerful more than the citizenry, I don't know. The result is that Singaporeans are kept ignorant of how Singapore legislates, enforces, and operates a violent machinery of killing, supported by public funds and resources with little to no meaningful independent oversight.

In last week's wrap, I mentioned Singapore's fourth Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council. During the session, 40 member states made recommendations that related to the death penalty; while the exact wording might have differed from country to country, many of the recommendations had to do with establishing a moratorium on the death penalty, with a view towards complete abolition. This is a significant number, even more than the 36 recommendations that were made during the previous cycle in 2021. It indicates a growing awareness, and criticism, around the world of Singapore's use of capital punishment, especially the death penalty for drug offences.

In its press statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs downplayed this, making on a brief and vague reference to "recommendations by several States on the abolition of capital punishment". This framing—specifically the use of the word "several"—was adopted by both ST and CNA—possibly because no one in either newsroom stayed up to watch the UPR process themselves, choosing just to pick up on MFA's statement after the fact. While it's true that "several" isn't an exact number, I think it's fair to say that few people would expect it to be a figure as high as 40.

List of member states that made death penalty-related recommendations

In alphabetical order. This is based on my own count—if anyone who was following the UPR has a different number, feel free to get in touch__to compare notes!__

1. Albania
2. Australia
3. Austria
4. Belgium
5. Cabo Verde
6. Canada
7. Chile
8. Colombia
9. Costa Rica
10. Côte d’Ivoire
11. Croatia
12. Cyprus
13. Czechia
14. Estonia
15. France
16. Germany
17. Iceland
18. Ireland
19. Italy
20. Kiribati
21. Lithuania
22. Luxembourg
23. Malaysia (framed as "upholding the right to life")
24. Malta
25. Marshall Islands
26. Mexico
27. The Netherlands
28. Norway
29. New Zealand
30. Paraguay
31. Poland
32. Portugal
33. Romania
34. Slovenia
35. Spain
36. Sweden
37. Switzerland
38. United Kingdom
39. Uruguay
40. Venezuela

The Singapore government often defends its position by saying that the death penalty works for our "national context" and that Singaporeans want the death penalty, citing their own public opinion surveys. But such claims ring hollow when they're built on foundations of opacity, oppression, suppression, censorship, obfuscation, and propaganda.

I think my position on the death penalty is clear to every reader of this newsletter (if it isn't, I'm going to need to completely rethink my entire writing career). But even people with different views on capital punishment should be upset or disturbed by how skewed and manipulated the broad public discourse on this issue is—regardless of what conclusions we might individually arrive at, Singaporeans deserve transparency, accountability, and open, good-faith, informed conversations on this life-and-death matter.

Thank you for reading! As always, feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested, share the web link on social media, or spread the word about this newsletter!

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