In 2024, Iran has carried out more than 400 executions, including 15 women, according to United Nations experts. This alarming number comes amid a significant surge in executions during August. UN reports indicate that at least 81 people were executed in August, nearly doubling the 45 executions reported in July.
A group of independent UN experts, including six special rapporteurs and five members of the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls, highlighted that nearly half of the executions in August were related to drug-related offenses. They emphasized that such executions violate international standards, as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party, restricts the death penalty to “the most serious crimes,” typically defined as intentional homicide.
The UN has repeatedly called on Iran to impose a moratorium on executions and ultimately abolish the death penalty. Despite legislative changes aimed at limiting the use of capital punishment for drug-related crimes, the number of executions in Iran has sharply increased since 2021.
Human rights organizations accuse Iranian authorities of using the death penalty as a tool of intimidation, especially in the wake of the protest movement that erupted following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who died in custody in September last year after being arrested for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code.
