The latest Global Torture Index identifies Iran as one of the world’s highest-risk countries for torture, impunity, and state violence. It warns that the intensification of repression following last year’s military conflict has increased the risk of torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, and other serious human rights violations.
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and partner organizations published the second edition of the Global Torture Index on Thursday, June 25. The index assesses the risk of torture in 39 countries across different regions of the world.
The report was released on the eve of June 26, the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, which the UN designated to emphasize the absolute prohibition of torture and support for its victims and survivors.
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According to the Iran data, compiled in cooperation with the Impact Iran coalition, torture is deeply embedded in the laws, policies, and official practices of Iran’s regime.
The report also states that the escalation of military conflict, including Israeli attacks in June 2025 and subsequent U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran’s regime, has increased the risk of torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, and other serious human rights violations.
According to the index, Iran’s regime was assessed at the highest risk level in six of the seven main evaluation categories: political commitment, police and state violence, impunity for perpetrators, victims’ rights, the right to defend human rights, and protection for all individuals.
The condition of detention facilities was also assessed as presenting a “high risk.” The index’s findings indicate that torture in Iran’s regime is not an exception but rather a tool of governance.
Torture, Executions, and Groups at Risk
The report says that Iran’s regime has still not acceded to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and does not recognize torture as a distinct criminal offense under its laws.
According to the report’s authors, the legal framework of Iran’s regime continues to permit punishments such as flogging and amputation, while the judicial system allows convictions based solely on confessions. They say this creates an incentive to use torture and ill-treatment to obtain confessions, including those later broadcast by state-run media.
The report states that Iran has one of the highest execution rates in the world. According to the report’s estimates, at least 1,639 people were executed in Iran in 2025, including individuals who were under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged offense.
The report also states that perpetrators of torture in Iran’s regime enjoy near-total impunity. It adds that no independent body is responsible for investigating allegations of torture or deaths in custody, and detention facilities operate with very limited or no external oversight.
According to the assessment, women and girls, ethnic minorities, human rights defenders, journalists, and lawyers are at greater risk than others of torture, arbitrary detention, and other forms of human rights violations.
The World Organisation Against Torture called on Iran’s regime to halt executions and judicial corporal punishments, accede to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, criminalize torture under its domestic laws, end the use of forced confessions, and allow the UN Fact-Finding Mission unrestricted access to Iran.
The organization also called on the international community to support efforts to hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable, provide the necessary resources for these efforts, and protect torture survivors and their families.
