The UN Human Rights Office reported that at least 841 people have been executed in Iran this year. According to the report, in the past month alone, 110 people were executed in Iran, which is double the number compared to the same month last year.
On Friday, August 29, the UN Human Rights Office issued a statement warning about the unprecedented rise in executions in Iran, declaring that officials of Iran’s regime continue the widespread use of the death penalty despite repeated calls from the international community to halt it.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that from the beginning of this year until August 28, at least 841 people have been executed in Iran—figures that show Iran’s regime is disregarding its international obligations.
According to her, in July alone, 110 people were executed in Iran, a figure more than double that of the same period last year, confirming the continuing upward trend in executions in the first half of 2025.
She warned that due to lack of transparency, the real number may be even higher.
On August 23, the human rights website HRANA, in its latest monthly report on human rights violations in Iran, wrote that in July this year, at least 160 people were hanged in prisons across the country.
Execution as a tool of intimidation
The UN Human Rights Office emphasized that these figures demonstrate the systematic use of the death penalty by Iran’s regime as a tool to instill fear and intimidation, disproportionately targeting ethnic minorities and migrants.
The office also reported at least seven public executions in Iran, stressing that this is a further insult to human dignity and has severe psychological impacts, especially on children.
According to the report, currently, the death sentences of 11 people with political charges are pending execution, including six accused of “rebellion” for “membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)” and five others in connection with the nationwide uprising of 2022.
Additionally, on August 16, Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Sharifeh Mohammadi, a labor rights activist.
According to reports from human rights organizations, around 70 prisoners across Iran are currently at risk of having their death sentences confirmed or carried out for political and security-related charges.
Call for immediate halt to executions
The spokesperson of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stressed that the death penalty is incompatible with the right to life and human dignity, warning that it always carries the risk of executing innocent people and should never be applied to acts protected under international law.
The UN Human Rights Office once again urged Iran’s regime to immediately halt executions.
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also called for the immediate suspension of these sentences as a first step toward the complete abolition of the death penalty.
