Bangladesh: End the death penalty Now
The Issue
In Bangladesh, approximately 1,800 people are currently living under sentence of death.
Each one lives with the possibility that the State may one day take their life.
The death penalty is cruel, irreversible, and incompatible with human dignity and the fundamental right to life. No justice system is perfect. Courts can make mistakes. Investigations can be flawed. Evidence can be unreliable. Confessions can be obtained through coercion or torture. Defendants may not have access to effective legal representation.
A prison sentence can be reviewed. A wrongful conviction can be overturned.
An execution can never be reversed.
Bangladesh remains a country that retains the death penalty in law. Although the country has recently experienced a period without recorded executions, death sentences continue to exist and approximately 1,800 people remain under sentence of death.
This is a critical opportunity for Bangladesh to turn a pause in executions into permanent change.
Why must Bangladesh abolish the death penalty?
There is no conclusive evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than imprisonment.
Capital punishment does not eliminate crime. It does not repair weak investigations, guarantee fair trials, or address the underlying causes of violence. Instead, it creates the possibility of the ultimate miscarriage of justice: the execution of an innocent person.
The death penalty also affects people unequally. Poor and marginalized defendants may struggle to obtain experienced lawyers and effective legal representation. In a case where a person's life is at stake, access to justice must never depend on wealth, social status, or influence.
Bangladesh is a State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but it has not joined the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, which aims at the abolition of the death penalty.
Across the world, a growing number of countries have rejected capital punishment in law or practice. Bangladesh should join this global movement.
Justice for victims does not require execution
Calling for an end to the death penalty does not mean ignoring serious crimes or abandoning victims and their families.
Victims deserve justice. They deserve truth, effective investigations, fair trials, meaningful support, and accountability for those responsible.
But justice should not depend on an irreversible punishment that can never be corrected when the justice system gets it wrong.
A humane and effective justice system can protect society and hold offenders accountable without executions.
We call on the authorities of Bangladesh to:
- Immediately declare an official moratorium on all executions;
- Commute all existing death sentences to appropriate terms of imprisonment;
- Stop seeking and imposing new death sentences while abolition legislation is being prepared;
- Conduct an independent and transparent review of death penalty cases involving allegations of torture, coerced confessions, inadequate legal representation, unreliable evidence, unfair trials, or miscarriages of justice;
- Amend national laws to remove capital punishment and replace it with penalties consistent with international human rights standards;
- Support future United Nations General Assembly resolutions calling for a moratorium on executions; and
- Take concrete steps towards joining the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the complete abolition of the death penalty.
Your signature can help demand change
Bangladesh now has an opportunity to choose a justice system based on accountability, fairness, human dignity, and respect for life.
We call on the President of Bangladesh, the Prime minister of Bangladesh, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Parliament, and all relevant authorities to act now.
Please sign and share this petition.
Together, we can demand a justice system that holds people accountable without executions, protects society without irreversible punishment, and respects the dignity and right to life of every human being.
Stop executions. Commute all death sentences. Abolish the death penalty in Bangladesh.
4
The Issue
In Bangladesh, approximately 1,800 people are currently living under sentence of death.
Each one lives with the possibility that the State may one day take their life.
The death penalty is cruel, irreversible, and incompatible with human dignity and the fundamental right to life. No justice system is perfect. Courts can make mistakes. Investigations can be flawed. Evidence can be unreliable. Confessions can be obtained through coercion or torture. Defendants may not have access to effective legal representation.
A prison sentence can be reviewed. A wrongful conviction can be overturned.
An execution can never be reversed.
Bangladesh remains a country that retains the death penalty in law. Although the country has recently experienced a period without recorded executions, death sentences continue to exist and approximately 1,800 people remain under sentence of death.
This is a critical opportunity for Bangladesh to turn a pause in executions into permanent change.
Why must Bangladesh abolish the death penalty?
There is no conclusive evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than imprisonment.
Capital punishment does not eliminate crime. It does not repair weak investigations, guarantee fair trials, or address the underlying causes of violence. Instead, it creates the possibility of the ultimate miscarriage of justice: the execution of an innocent person.
The death penalty also affects people unequally. Poor and marginalized defendants may struggle to obtain experienced lawyers and effective legal representation. In a case where a person's life is at stake, access to justice must never depend on wealth, social status, or influence.
Bangladesh is a State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but it has not joined the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, which aims at the abolition of the death penalty.
Across the world, a growing number of countries have rejected capital punishment in law or practice. Bangladesh should join this global movement.
Justice for victims does not require execution
Calling for an end to the death penalty does not mean ignoring serious crimes or abandoning victims and their families.
Victims deserve justice. They deserve truth, effective investigations, fair trials, meaningful support, and accountability for those responsible.
But justice should not depend on an irreversible punishment that can never be corrected when the justice system gets it wrong.
A humane and effective justice system can protect society and hold offenders accountable without executions.
We call on the authorities of Bangladesh to:
- Immediately declare an official moratorium on all executions;
- Commute all existing death sentences to appropriate terms of imprisonment;
- Stop seeking and imposing new death sentences while abolition legislation is being prepared;
- Conduct an independent and transparent review of death penalty cases involving allegations of torture, coerced confessions, inadequate legal representation, unreliable evidence, unfair trials, or miscarriages of justice;
- Amend national laws to remove capital punishment and replace it with penalties consistent with international human rights standards;
- Support future United Nations General Assembly resolutions calling for a moratorium on executions; and
- Take concrete steps towards joining the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the complete abolition of the death penalty.
Your signature can help demand change
Bangladesh now has an opportunity to choose a justice system based on accountability, fairness, human dignity, and respect for life.
We call on the President of Bangladesh, the Prime minister of Bangladesh, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Parliament, and all relevant authorities to act now.
Please sign and share this petition.
Together, we can demand a justice system that holds people accountable without executions, protects society without irreversible punishment, and respects the dignity and right to life of every human being.
Stop executions. Commute all death sentences. Abolish the death penalty in Bangladesh.
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on 4 July 2026