The State of the World's Human Rights; Singapore 2025

Government suppression of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly remained relentless. Repressive laws targeted activists, journalists and political opponents and migrant workers faced exploitation. Executions of people for drug offences escalated.

Background

In May, the People’s Action Party was re-elected in the general elections. Opposition parties faced an unequal playing field and achieved relatively low results.

Freedom of expression

The government continued to use laws, including the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), to stifle freedom of expression and silence dissent. In January, the government blocked access to the website of NGO East Asia Forum (EAF) after claiming it failed to comply with a POFMA order. The order – in which the government accused EAF of “false statements of fact” – was issued in reaction to an article criticizing the government. Meta platforms and X were also required to carry correction notices for posts related to the article.

In February, Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam and Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng sued news agency Bloomberg and its journalist Low De Wei for defamation for allegedly libellous statements about their property dealings. The ministers also sued Terry Xu, editor of independent news site The Online Citizen (TOC), for reporting on the same issue. The government previously issued POFMA orders against both Bloomberg and Xu in 2024.¹

In March, a POFMA order was issued against the leader of the Reform Party, Kenneth Jeyaretnam, the ninth against him, for an article on his blog and social media accounts criticizing auxiliary police officers.

In June, TOC was designated a “Declared Online Location” for a second time, requiring it to display a message stating that it had been accused of “multiple falsehoods”. It was banned from receiving funds via its website or social media accounts for an additional two years. Multiple other POFMA orders were issued against activists and dissidents for criticism of the death penalty and other issues deemed sensitive by the government. In December, opposition leader Pritam Singh lost his appeal against a conviction for lying to a parliamentary committee, which carried a fine of SGD 14,000 (USD 10,800). Police investigated a filmmaker for remarks allegedly wounding religious and racial feelings after a screening of his documentary on the 2018 Gaza flotilla.

Freedom of peaceful assembly

In January, police investigated students who participated in a memorial event at the National University of Singapore. The students, who displayed shoes to represent victims of the genocide in Gaza, were investigated for unlawful assembly under the Public Order Act.

In February, police charged activist Jolovan Wham under the Public Order Act for participating in five candlelight vigils for prisoners on death row. Police also used the act to investigate a group who took a photo outside the court in support of Wham.

In October, activists Mossammad Sobikun Nahar, Siti Amirah Mohamed Asrori and Annamalai Kokila Parvathi were acquitted of organizing an unlawful assembly for delivering letters protesting human rights violations in Gaza to the presidential palace. They had each faced fines of up to SGD 10,000 (USD 7,700) or up to six months in prison, or both, under the Public Order Act. The government said it would appeal.

In October, Hong Kong activist Nathan Law was denied entry into Singapore, despite holding a visa, after the government said his visit would not be in the “national interest”. He was trying to attend a closed-door conference.

Death penalty

Executions continued at an alarming rate. In August, clemency in a death penalty case was granted for the first time since 1998.² UN special rapporteurs expressed serious concerns about the use of the death penalty and the Misuse of Drugs Act. In October, a Malaysian man Pannir Selvam was executed – the 13th execution of the year – despite public outcry.

Migrants’ rights

Reports continued of poor treatment of migrant workers, including long hours, low wages and labour exploitation. In July, the Ministry of Manpower disclosed that since January it had received 120 reports of workers being charged recruitment fees and trapped in jobs with low wages and excessive hours in scams involving a training visa scheme.

1. Singapore: Relentless Repression: Submission to the 52nd Session of the UPR Working Group, April-May 2026, 3 November ↩︎
2. “Singapore: Call for death penalty moratorium renewed after first clemency since 1998 and third execution in three weeks”, 22 August ↩︎