“I’ve realised that I can’t force people to change how they feel about the death penalty—all I can do is provide entry points for them to encounter the issue.”
There are some people in the world who seem so dedicated to their jobs that it’s hard to believe they could have ever done something else. For those individuals, their identities become wrapped up in their professions—what they do becomes who they are. As one of Singapore’s most prominent activists, Kirsten Han certainly belongs in this group.
Kirsten Han, 34
Han is an anti—death penalty activist and has found herself in many an unenviable position over the years—including in the middle of several public police investigations. Her first encounter with the police happened in 2017 at a candlelight vigil outside Changi Prison for Prabagaran Srivijayan, a man who would be executed for drug trafficking the following morning. Participants at the vigil, including Han, were stopped by the police and told not to leave the country.
Earlier this year, Han was once again questioned by the police for allegedly taking part in public assemblies held outside Changi Prison Complex without a permit. This is not Han’s first—and likely will not be her last—brush with the law. Her work, which seeks to reform the justice system in Singapore, starting with abolishing the death penalty, inherently requires her to push up against the strict boundaries erected to keep current systems in place. To transform these systems, as Han and her organisation Transformative Justice Collective want to do, means challenging the powers that be.
“I’ve had to learn to untangle two things: what is legal and what
