Comment by UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango on executions in Kuwait and Singapore

We deplore the multiple executions carried out this week in Kuwait and Singapore and oppose the death penalty under all circumstances. Five prisoners were executed in Kuwait and two in Singapore, including the first woman to be executed there in 20 years.

We urge Kuwait and Singapore to immediately establish a moratorium on executions and join the more than 170 States that have so far abolished or introduced a moratorium on the death penalty either in law or in practice - with a view to ultimately abolishing the death penalty on their territories.

The death penalty is inconsistent with the fundamental right to life and to the right to be free from torture and other inhuman treatment and should be expunged as a punishment from all laws everywhere.