Will Drug Policies in Asia Make a Turn Toward Human Rights in 2026?
After a decade of both horrific human rights violations and progressive reforms in drug policy in Asia, what can we expect in 2026? This is an important question as a landmark report by the International Drug Policy Consortium assesses the past decade of global drug policy.
The report documents the policy shifts in response to drugs globally, highlighting areas of progress toward more humane and health-oriented drug policies, but also steps taken toward securitization and militarization, and their implications for health, human rights, security and development.
In Asia, the past decade has seen important changes, some of which moved away from the traditional paradigm of punitive drug control. Reforms have been implemented with the stated aim of enabling health, cultural, and economic benefits for communities, notably with the legal regulation of cannabis and kratom in Thailand. Other reforms constitute advances in human rights, such as legal changes to reduce use of the death penalty for drug offenses in Malaysia, Pakistan and Vietnam.
Unfortunately, these positive measures were significantly outweighed by the brutal violence exacted by drug policies in the region, sometimes within the countries that simultaneously adopted more progressive reforms.
Over 8,000 people were killed in extrajudicial executions (including deaths in police custody) in the Philippines, as well as in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Thailand albeit in far lower known numbers. Judicial executions have continued in China, Singapore and Vietnam, with the death penalty introduced for drug offences in the Maldives. Thanks in part to strict drug laws, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Indonesia have among the world’s highest rates of prison overcrowding and increases in prison populations especially for women. Finally, deaths, detention, extortion, and other human rights abuses in so-called drug rehabilitation centers are commonly reported in many Asian countries including Cambodia, India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka.
With former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte arrested and detained in The Hague, facing charges of committing crimes against humanity for the thousands of people killed extrajudicially during his “war on drugs” campaign, can we expect to herald a new chapter for drug policy in the Philippines, and elsewhere in Asia?
The widespread killing, with impunity, of so many Filipinos, many of whom were targeted because of their low socio-economic background, is an unspeakable horror that must not be forgotten. Yet even at the height of the slaughter, the definitive and widespread outrage that this warranted was nowhere to be seen. Such is the stigma and misguided fear about drugs.
A Filipino human rights advocate shared his perspective on the killings as the IDPC report was being drafted:
It has been disheartening to witness the erosion of human rights and rule of law in my country. Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen countless lives lost with many innocent people caught in the crossfire simply for the crime of using or being associated with drugs. Families have been torn apart, and communities have been traumatized by the brutal tactics employed in the name of combating drug trafficking.
Hiding behind its policy of “non-interference,” the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gave no indication of any concern about these egregious violations. That’s despite ASEAN’s commitment to a workplan on drug policy that moves toward achieving access to equitable justice, and ensuring evidence- and community-based approaches to treatment and rehabilitation.
More positively, in 2025 the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) held its first-ever meeting on drug policy. AICHR commissioners joined in discussions about human rights violations and their impacts, and potential measures to address those violations. They were joined by national-level drug control and human rights agencies, civil society organizations, and groups directly impacted by drug policies – including people who use drugs and farmers cultivating crops deemed illicit such as opium and cannabis.
This year, the ASEAN entity with responsibility for drug policy – the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting for Drug Matters (AMDD) – is expected to complete its review of the ASEAN Work Plan on Securing Communities Against Illicit Drugs 2016 – 2025. Based on the AICHR meeting conclusions, and as recommended in a civil society report co-drafted by IDPC, the AMMD must gather evidence about the impacts and effectiveness (and ineffectiveness) of drug policies across the region. This includes evidence from research carried out by academics and other experts such as civil society groups conducting analyses of the workings of law enforcement and the legal system in handling drug cases, and the lived experiences of people directly affected by drug policies. That includes people who use drugs, formerly incarcerated people, and farmers cultivating crops that are deemed illicit, with a specific focus on communities experiencing intersectional forms of stigma, discrimination and/or criminalization, especially women and girls, young people, migrants, refugees, and LGBTQ+ people.
Countries in the region are at a crossroads, torn between persisting with outdated “war on drugs” narratives that emphasize law enforcement and punishment, while trying to align with increasing international calls for drug policies centered upon health and human rights principles.
They now have an important choice to make: should they continue ignoring the mounting evidence that harsh drug policies, with unbalanced investments in law enforcement over health, have resulted in wide-ranging human rights violations and failed to make any progress toward reducing drug supply and demand?
While some countries have recognized some of these policy failures and embarked on a path toward health and human rights-led drug policy, political and institutional challenges risk stalling their progress. Severe funding challenges facing civil society and community-led groups, and other drug policy experts in the U.N. system and academia, pose huge challenges to their ability to support efforts to advance reforms.
However, the fact is that drug policies in the region have a monumental impact on the lives of people and concerns about the damage they cause will remain. IDPC’s report proposes a new path toward drug policies grounded in evidence, health, and human rights – and importantly, policies that incorporate inputs and recommendations from civil society. Southeast Asia has a unique opportunity to rise up to this challenge, and lead the way for reforms that steer away from a drug control approach that has so clearly failed to protect the health, rights and safety of its population.
