In a statement released today ahead of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Human Rights Activists (HRA) and The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABC) condemn the alarming surge in executions in Iran, which have reached their highest level in the last decade—at least 811 reported executions in the past year alone as reported by the organizations.
Iran has long maintained one of the highest execution rates in the world, and in recent years, the use of the death penalty has alarmingly intensified. In 2023, Iran accounted for 75% of all recorded executions globally.
From October 2023 to October 2024, at least 811 executions have been carried out, marking a sharp increase from the previous year and reaching levels not seen in nearly a decade. In August alone, at least 97 executions were reported, 45 of which were for drug-related offenses—charges that do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes” under international law. This year also marks the highest number of women executed in the past decade, with 23 women being put to death.
Research consistently demonstrates that the death penalty lacks any measurable deterrent effect on crime rates. The widespread use of the death penalty in Iran is not only a grave violation of the right to life, enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), but is also emblematic of the systemic failures and corruption within the judiciary. The death penalty in Iran is routinely imposed following trials that are marred by serious due process violations, including the use of coerced forced confessions extracted under torture as a primary source of conviction in the majority of cases alongside the regular denial of access to legal representation. The Iranian judiciary, far from being an independent arbiter of justice, has instead become an instrument of state repression, using the death penalty to silence dissent and instill fear among the population.
We call on the Iranian authorities to immediately establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, in line with repeated calls from the United Nations and civil society organizations, and to address the structural flaws within the judiciary that enable these grave violations.
