by Pui Yi Cheng, Media and Public Affairs Coordinator at Amnesty International Australia

"The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," said the The Global Commission on Drug Policy earlier this year.

For the family of Pakistani boy Azizullah Shenwari, nothing could be truer than this declaration made by a leading international drugs commission.

At just 11 years old, Azizullah Shenwari was abducted near his home in Pakistan and reportedly used by drug traffickers to carry narcotics into Iran. A year later, an Iranian prison told his family that he had been sentenced to death for drug trafficking.

According to the UN, Iran is leading the global war against the drug trade, spending more than $700 million to seal its borders. But at what cost to human rights?

An Amnesty report released today reveals that in the past year Iran’s authorities have embarked on a killing spree directed at people convicted of drug-related offences.

Iran is a slaughterhouse of death sentences. In Amnesty’s 2010 death penalty statistics report, Iran was ranked second only to China as the world’s leading executioner. This year alone there have been 600 reported executions up to the end of November. Of these, about 81% were for alleged drug offences.

The international community has been supportive of Iran’s hardline drug policies and is even directing aid to bolster the country’s efforts to stem the illegal flow of narcotics. But as the editor of kurdishblogger.com wrote in The Guardian last week, Western leaders are turning a blind eye to Iran’s dodgy dealings in its approach on drugs.

Given the shroud of secrecy that hangs over Iran’s executions, not much is reported about who have actually had their lives 'legally' taken by the state.

Of the 600 executions in Iran this year, about 81% were for alledged drug offences.

What we do know is that the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on the poorest, least educated and most vulnerable members of society.

Take for example Hourieh Sabahi, Leila Hayati and Roghieh Khalaji - three mothers of young children who reportedly turned to drug smuggling to feed their families. Despite being low-ranking members of a larger trafficking operation, all three women were sentenced to death, had no access to a lawyer and had no right of appeal.

Despite the authorities’ addiction to the death penalty as a cure-all solution, Iran’s drug problem is continuing to grow. Rather than disbanding the organised gangs which control the drugs trade, it’s the low-level ‘drug mules’ that are getting caught up in Iran’s epidemic of executions.

Increasing the use of the death penalty is a shoddy attempt at a solution to curbing the drug trade. The international community shouldn't be condoning this brutal policy and sacrificing human rights in the name of the 'war on drugs'.

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