Dozens of Human Rights Organizations Support the 'Tuesdays Without Executions' Movement

Dozens of Iranian and international human rights organizations have issued a joint statement expressing their support for the 'Tuesdays Without Executions' movement. This statement, signed by 68 human rights entities, warns that in Iran, from August 2 to August 21, an average of one person has been executed every six hours. According to the statement, since 2021, the number of executions has 'increased' each year, with 'at least 834 people hanged last year.' These organizations noted that 'Iran Human Rights' has recorded and confirmed at least 395 executions as of August 26 this year, adding: 'Executions for drug-related offenses continue to be the most numerous, and marginalized groups and ethnic minorities, particularly Kurds and Baluchis, make up a high percentage of those executed relative to their population.' The signatories of the statement declared that the Islamic Republic uses the death penalty as a tool for 'political repression,' and death sentences are issued after 'unfair trials and without adhering to minimum standards of fair trial.' The statement also references how the 'Tuesdays Without Executions' movement was formed, stating that last February, 'a group of brave political prisoners in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj protested, which was violently suppressed.' The political prisoners who participated in this protest and initiated the campaign include Jafar Ebrahimi, Zartosht Ahmadiragheb, Sepehr Imam Jomeh, Loqman Aminpour, Ahmadreza Haeri, Meysam Dehbanzadeh, Reza Salmandazeh, Hamzeh Savari, Saeed Masouri, and Reza Mohammadi. The signatory organizations added that this group of political prisoners, with various beliefs and orientations, has been on a hunger strike once a week since February 29, which is referred to as 'Black Tuesdays' and 'Tuesdays No to Executions.' Tuesday was chosen because it is usually the day when death row inmates in Gohardasht Prison are transferred to solitary confinement for execution. This weekly hunger strike is now in its thirty-first week and has spread to 17 other prisons in Iran. Participants in these strikes continue to insist on their demand for the abolition of the death penalty despite violent repression. The signatories expressed their solidarity with the 'Tuesdays No to Executions' movement in Iranian prisons and called for a halt to all executions in Iran. They also urged the international community to 'support the growing movement to abolish the death penalty in Iran.' Organizations such as Iran Human Rights, the Global Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Solidarity Against the Death Penalty, the Center for Human Rights Defenders, the Iran Human Rights Campaign, the World Organization Against Torture, the International Federation for Human Rights, the Asian Network Against the Death Penalty, the Kurdistan Human Rights Association - Geneva, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, the Siamak Pourzand Foundation, and Article 19 are among the signatories of this statement. Additionally, organizations such as Six Color (the network of Iranian lesbians and transgender people), Halvaash, the Ahvaz Human Rights Organization, the Balochistan Human Rights Group, the Hengaw Human Rights Organization, the Azerbaijani People's Human Rights Association in Iran (Ehraaz), the International Harm Reduction Organization, the Kurdish Human Rights Organization, the Pakistan Justice Project, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty in the United States, the American PEN Association, the Italian Federation for Human Rights, the Transitional Justice Working Group from South Korea, and the Alliance Against Gender Apartheid of Women in Iran and Afghanistan have also signed the statement.