Australia: CPJP Ambassadors urge reform of international crime cooperation
WORLD DAY AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY
10 October 2026
Australia is a widely respected leader in the global fight against the death penalty. Australia’s Strategy for Abolition of the Death Penalty, released in 2018, commits the Australian Government to working to end its use worldwide, with support across political parties. In 2022, Australia co-led the United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.
But the Strategy leaves out police-to-police and government-to-government cooperation, including extradition and mutual assistance. The laws and guidelines that cover them do not yet fully prevent Australian agencies from contributing to death sentences overseas.
Today, on World Day Against the Death Penalty, CPJP's Council of Ambassadors has written to Australia's Attorney-General, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Foreign Affairs, with practical ideas to help make sure Australia's work with other countries on crime never contributes to an execution.
The letter is led by Barry Jones AC and co-signed by all of CPJP's Ambassadors, including Council Chair Stephen Keim SC and Patron the Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG. Several signatories were personally involved in the decade-long effort to save Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who were executed in Indonesia in 2015 on drug trafficking convictions.
Why this issue matters
The risk has not gone away. In Andrew and Myuran’s circumstances, known as the ‘Bali 9’ case, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) passed information to Indonesian authorities knowing that drug trafficking attracts the death penalty there. Our Ambassadors believe today's AFP would not make the same call in so clear-cut a case, but the guidelines and oversight that govern such decisions have not been reformed sufficiently to prevent a similar outcome in less obvious circumstances.
Safeguards have been bypassed. Between the 2021 military coup and May 2023, the AFP shared 296 pieces of intelligence with Myanmar about drug exports. None was referred to the AFP's Sensitive Investigations Oversight Board, the body set up to scrutinise exactly this kind of cooperation.
An opportunity to match Australia's own position. Australia has stated publicly that the death penalty must never be imposed for drug-related offences. Many of our key crime cooperation partners, including Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Malaysia, Singapore and China, retain the death penalty for such offences. Globally, more than 1,200 people were executed for drug-related offences in 2025, over 46% of all known executions.
What we are asking the Australian Government to change
Mutual assistance: amend sections 8(1A) and (1B) of the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1987 (Cth) to remove the Attorney-General's discretion to share information in cases where the death penalty may be imposed.
Extradition: amend the Extradition Act 1988 (Cth) to prohibit extradition to a retentionist state where a person may face the death penalty.
Police cooperation: commit publicly to the further examination of international crime cooperation that a parliamentary committee found was warranted in 2024. That includes an urgent review of the AFP National Guideline on International Police-to-Police Assistance in Death Penalty Situations, and of the composition and use of the Sensitive Investigations Oversight Board.
We welcome the Government's June 2026 response to the 2024 parliamentary inquiry, including its commitment to a revised Strategy for Abolition of the Death Penalty. We are asking for the revised Strategy to cover every arm of government, with Australia's commitment entrenched in law.
We know how important it is to fight serious crime, and we do not underestimate the complexity of that work. The United Nations Task Team on drug-related matters has found that using the death penalty for drug-related offences may get in the way of cross-border cooperation. That is why we believe these changes are consistent with, and would support, law enforcement as well as protect lives.
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The letter builds on our joint stakeholder submission to the fourth cycle of the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of Australia, made in July 2025 by CPJP, the Julian Wagner Memorial Fund and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network.
Support our work
CPJP provides direct assistance to people facing the death penalty and develops legal and policy solutions that save lives. To support this work, donate at www.cpjp.org.au/donate.
Media enquiries
Capital Punishment Justice Project – executive.officer@cpjp.org.au | 0434 306 210