Iran has executed at least 1,000 people so far this year or the most in over three decades, according to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), which called for a United Nations investigation into what it described as crimes against humanity.
“This is the highest number of recorded executions in more than 30 years,” IHR said in a statement. Iran executed at least 5,000 political prisoners in 1988, according to Amnesty International.
From Jan. 1 to Sept. 23, IHR said it had verified 1,000 executions, including 64 in the past week alone — an average of more than nine a day.
The group said the figures represented a minimum, as many cases went unreported.
“In recent months the Islamic Republic has begun a mass killing campaign in Iran’s prisons, the dimensions of which, in the absence of serious international reactions, are expanding every day,” IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said in a statement.
“The widespread, arbitrary executions of prisoners without due process and fair trial rights amount to crimes against humanity and must be placed at the top of the international community’s agenda.”
IHR said most executions were for drug-related and other non-lethal offences, which do not meet the “most serious crimes” threshold under international law.
According to its data, 50% were for drug charges, 43% for murder, 3% for security-related charges such as baghy (armed rebellion) and moharebeh (waging war against God), 3% for rape and 1% for espionage for Israel.
Only 11% of executions were announced by official sources, with none of the drug-related cases disclosed publicly, the group added.
The organization urged the UN Human Rights Council’s Fact-Finding Mission on Iran to investigate the executions, citing their “scale, systematic nature and political function to intimidate and create societal fear.”
At least 975 people were executed in Iran in 2024, a 17% increase from the previous year, making it one of the world’s leading users of the death penalty, according to rights monitors.
