In brief
Iran executed at least 901 people last year, marking a 6% rise from 2023, with a notable escalation in executions linked to drug offenses and social dissent, according to the UN's human rights chief.
Iran has reportedly executed a staggering 901 individuals throughout 2024, representing the highest number in nearly a decade, according to the United Nations human rights chief, Volker Türk. This figure indicates a 6% increase from the previous year, which saw 853 executions. Disturbingly, approximately 40 of these executions occurred within a single week in December."It is deeply disturbing that yet again we see an increase in the number of people subjected to the death penalty in Iran year-on-year," Türk stated, urging Iranian authorities to halt all executions and impose a moratorium on the death penalty with the objective of eventually abolishing it. He emphasized that "the death penalty is incompatible with the fundamental right to life."While many executions were attributed to drug-related offenses, individuals associated with the nationwide protests that erupted in 2022 also faced the death penalty. This includes a notable rise in the number of executed women, with a report from Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) detailing that at least 31 women were executed—marking the highest count since the organization began tracking death sentences 17 years ago.Among these women, 19 were condemned for murder, including Leila Ghaemi, who tragically killed her husband after discovering him abusing her daughter. The remaining 12 women were executed for drug-related crimes. Parvin Mousavi, one notable case, was executed for transporting what she believed was medicine, which turned out to be a substantial amount of morphine.Human rights activists argue that prosecuting drug offenses under the death penalty does not meet the threshold for "most serious crimes" as defined by international law. Moreover, a separate report from Hengaw, a Kurdish human rights group, revealed that over half of those executed belonged to ethnic minority groups, with 183 Kurds among the deceased. This demographic has reportedly faced increased persecution since the inception of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests in late 2022, which were spurred by the tragic death of a Kurdish woman while in police custody.The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) documented that five juvenile offenders were also executed, which contravenes international law prohibiting capital punishment for those under 18 at the time of their crime.According to Amnesty International, Iran accounted for 74% of the recorded executions worldwide in 2023. This figure does not include China, which is believed to have thousands of annual executions, though the exact numbers remain classified. The continued upward trend of executions in Iran has triggered widespread condemnation and urgent calls for reform from global human rights advocates.
