Of the 195 states in the United Nations (UN) 103 have abolished the death penalty believing it a contravention to human rights and dignity. Until 2015, Pakistan had placed a moratorium on the death penalty but reinstated it in 2015 following the horrific attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014. Since that time the government has executed more than 380 prisoners.

Pakistan has one of the largest death row populations in the world. This is partly because there are so many offences (over 20) for which a person may receive a death sentence including non-lethal crimes such as blasphemy, kidnapping, and drug offenses. There are around 7,595 prisoners on death row in Pakistan. Hanging is the only legal means of execution in Pakistan

Death row prisoners are held in squalid conditions with cells measuring 8 x 12 built for one, or two, people now holding six or more and confinement being up to 23 hours a day. Nutrition, sanitation, and exercise are inadequate and lack of these can lead to disease, violence, and the deaths of prisoners.

These conditions violate human rights as detailed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Articles 6, 7, and 10 which protect the right to life, prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the right to humane treatment while incarcerated. The Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan has also recognised serious human rights violations for Pakistani prisoners and declared that only prisoner condemned by a High Court may be transferred to a death row cell.

The average prisoner on death row will spend many years awaiting execution. During this time, the conditions above can result in prisoners suffering from Death Row Syndrome which produces severe mental trauma and physical deterioration including fearfulness, anxiety, depression, self-mutilation, confusion, lethargy, and insanity. Any existing mental health conditions are exacerbated by death row.

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