UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Expresses Concern Over Increase in Executions in Iran

On Tuesday, January 8, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, expressed serious concern over the significant increase in executions in Iran over the past year. Reports indicate that at least 901 people were executed in 2024, with around 40 of them executed in just one week in December. In 2023, at least 853 people were executed. According to a report received by Voice of America, Turk stated, "It is very concerning that year after year, we are witnessing an increase in the number of people sentenced to death in Iran." He added, "It is time for the Iranian government to stop this rising wave of executions." Most executions last year were carried out for drug-related offenses, but opponents and individuals linked to the nationwide protests of 2021 were also executed. There has also been a reported increase in the number of women executed. This senior UN official stated, "We oppose the death penalty under any circumstances. The death penalty is incompatible with the fundamental right to life and carries the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people, and for clarity, it can never be applied to behaviors protected under international human rights law." The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Iranian authorities to halt all executions and impose a moratorium on the death penalty with the ultimate goal of abolishing it. Approximately 170 countries have either abolished the death penalty or established a moratorium on its use. The previous day, a human rights organization announced that in the past year, two years after the onset of nationwide protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the police's morality patrol, which sparked the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement, the Islamic Republic recorded the highest annual number of executions of women in over 17 years. According to a recent report by the Iran Human Rights Organization published on Monday, January 16, 31 women were executed in Iranian prisons in 2024, marking an unprecedented level of executions of women since the organization began recording execution statistics in 2008.