The UN Human Rights Office has reported that Iranian authorities executed at least 841 people from the beginning of 2025 until 28 August, despite repeated international appeals to halt the use of capital punishment.
In July alone, Iran carried out 110 executions — more than double the number recorded in the same month last year. This sharp increase follows an already significant rise in executions during the first half of 2025. According to the UN, the scale of executions reflects a systematic use of the death penalty as a tool of intimidation, with ethnic minorities and migrants disproportionately targeted.
At present, 11 individuals face imminent execution. Six of them have been convicted of “armed rebellion” for alleged membership in the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) group, while five others were sentenced in connection with the 2022 protests. On 16 August, the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence against workers' rights activist Sharifeh Mohammadi.
Additional data published by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights on 18 August indicated that Iran executed at least 800 people since the start of the year, averaging 100 per month.
According to Hengaw, among those executed were at least 30 political and ideological prisoners, 22 women, and one child offender convicted of a crime committed as a minor.
Hengaw reported that ethnic and national minorities were disproportionately affected, with 116 Kurds, 107 Lors, 92 Baloch, and 82 Turks among those executed. At least 46 Afghan nationals were also put to death during this period. The group warned of an alarming escalation and called on democratic governments, international bodies, and civil society to take a firm stance against Iran’s systematic use of capital punishment.
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk stressed that the death penalty is incompatible with the right to life and human dignity, warning of the irreversible risk of executing innocent people. He noted that international law prohibits imposing capital punishment for conduct protected under human rights standards.
Türk called on the Iranian government to refrain from carrying out these sentences and urged once again that Tehran establish a moratorium on executions as a first step toward abolition.