More than 800 people have been executed in Iran for the reason that begin of the yr, the U.N. stated on Friday (August 29, 2025), decrying “a systematic pattern of using the death penalty as a tool of state intimidation”.
The United Nations rights workplace stated there had been a “major increase in executions during the first half of 2025”.
“Iranian authorities have executed at least 841 people since the beginning of the year and up until August 28, 2025,” spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani advised reporters in Geneva, warning that “the real situation might be different. It might be worse, given the lack of transparency”.
In July alone, she stated Iran had executed at least 110 people — double the variety of people executed in July 2024.
“The high number of executions indicates a systematic pattern of using death penalty as a tool of state intimidation, with disproportionate targeting of ethnic minorities and migrants,” she cautioned.
Ms. Shamdasani particularly lamented using public executions in Iran, with the rights workplace documenting seven such circumstances for the reason that starting of the yr.
“Public executions add an extra layer of outrage upon human dignity… not only on the dignity of the people concerned, the people who are executed, but also on all those who have to bear witness,” she stated.
“The psychological trauma of bearing witness to somebody being hanged in public, particularly for children, is unacceptable,” she added.
Ms. Shamdasani stated that 11 people have been at the moment dealing with “imminent execution” in Iran, together with six who’ve been charged with “armed rebellion” on account of alleged membership of the exiled opposition People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (MEK).
The different 5 had been sentenced to demise over their participation in large-scale protests in 2022, she stated, including that Iran’s supreme court docket confirmed final week the demise sentence in opposition to employees’ rights activist Sharifeh Mohammadi.
“The death penalty is incompatible with the right to life and irreconcilable with human dignity,” she insisted. “It creates an unacceptable risk of executing innocent people. It should never be imposed for conduct that is protected under international human rights law,” she stated.
The U.N. rights workplace was urging Iran’s authorities “not to implement the death penalty against these and other individuals on death row”, Ms. Shamdasani stated.
