Iranian authorities reportedly executed 901 people last year, including about 40 in one week in December, the UN human rights chief said on Tuesday.
“It is deeply disturbing that we are once again witnessing an increase in the number of people being executed in Iran year after year,” said Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. This compares with at least 853 people executed in Iran in 2023.
“It is high time for Iran to end this ever-increasing wave of executions,” Turk said in a statement.
Iran uses the death penalty major crimes including murder, drug trafficking, rape and sexual assault.
Activists are increasingly concerned about the growing number of hangings in Iran.
The Islamic Republic executes more people a year than any other nation except China, according to human rights groups including Amnesty International, although there are no reliable figures.
They blame the authorities under the leadership of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei applying the highest penalty as a tool to instill fear in the entire society, especially after 2022-2023. nationwide protests.
The UN rights office said most of last year's executions were for drug-related offences, but noted that “dissidents and people linked to the 2022 protests were also executed”.
“The number of executed women has also increased,” the office noted.
An HRC report on Monday said at least 31 women were executed in Iran in 2024.
Iran does not publish official data on executions, but UN rights office spokeswoman Liz Trossell told reporters that the team had collected data from a number of different credible human rights organizations that monitor the situation, including HRANA, Hengaw and Iran Human Rights, which is based in Norway.
“We are confident in the numbers,” she said.
The highest number of executions in Iran in decades was recorded in 2015, when at least 972 people were executed.
After that, the numbers dropped after Iran's anti-narcotics law was reformed in 2017, but Throssell warned that “from 2022, the numbers will skyrocket.”
“Obviously the number for 2024 is alarming, shockingly high,” Throssell said.
Turk emphasized that his department opposes “the death penalty under any circumstances.”
“This is incompatible with the fundamental right to life and creates an unacceptable risk of the execution of innocent people,” he said. “And to be clear, it can never be imposed for conduct that is protected by international human rights law.”
The UN human rights chief has called on the Iranian authorities to halt all further executions and introduce a moratorium on the use of the death penalty with the aim of its eventual abolition.
About 170 states have either abolished the death penalty or imposed a moratorium on its use.