The death penalty in Laos is applied in cases of treason, murder and rape

The death penalty in Laos is applied in cases of treason, espionage, terrorism, robbery, kidnapping, economic crimes and murder.
On April 9, 2001 the National Assembly passed an amendment to the country’s 1990 Criminal Code that introduced the death penalty for drug trafficking. The amended law included capital punishment for producers, distributors, smugglers and anyone found in possession of heroin, as well as traffickers of amphetamines and methamphetamines. A death sentence would be assured to those found in possession of more than 500 grams of heroin, or more than three kilograms of methamphetamines. Before the amendments prison terms for drug offenders ranged from life to ten years, depending on the amount found in possession. Laos is the world’s third-largest producer of opium and has been used as a production base for methamphetamines. The government has vowed to turn the country into a "drug-free zone" by the year 2015.
Prison conditions are generally extremely harsh and life threatening. Food rations are minimal, and prisoners are sometimes subjected to torture and other abuses by members of the security forces. Credible sources have reported that detainees were subjected to beatings, long-term solitary confinement in completely darkened rooms, and burning with cigarettes. In some cases, detainees were held in leg chains or wooden stocks.
No executions have taken place since 1989 according to government officials.
In 2010, during the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review, Laos has been recommended to conform its law to its international obligations, ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, establish a de jure moratorium on executions and the imposition of the death penalty and commute all death sentences. Laos accepted the first recommendation but rejected those to abolish the death penalty or institute a formal moratorium on its implementation and execution, while stating that it would review its laws with a view towards conformity to the ICCPR’s Article 6 restriction of the death penalty to the most serious offenses.
On 18 December 2014, Laos again abstained on the Resolution for a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.