More than 400 people have been executed in Iran since the start of the year, according to UN experts

UN experts are concerned about the surge in executions in Iran. More than 400 people, including 15 women, have been executed in the country since the beginning of 2024, a group of independent experts, comprising six special rapporteurs and five members of the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls, said on Monday (September 2).

At least 81 people were executed in August, about twice as many as the 45 executions reported in July, they say, without citing their sources. These experts, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, are not speaking on behalf of the organization. They say they are “deeply concerned by this sharp increase in the number of executions”.

About half of the executions in August were for drug-related offences, the statement said, recalling that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party, “limits the application of the death penalty to the ‘most serious crimes’, that is, to voluntary homicides”. “Executions for drug offences violate international standards”experts said.

The UN has repeatedly called on Iran to impose a moratorium on executions, with a view to eventually abolishing the death penalty. They point out that the number of executions for drug-related offences has increased sharply in Iran since 2021, with more than 400 executions in 2023.

Human rights activists accuse Iran of using the death penalty as a means of intimidation in the face of protests sparked by the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd arrested for violating a strict dress code.