No fewer than 901 people were executed in Iran in 2024, including about 40 in a single week in December, according to the United Nations’ human rights chief.
“It is deeply disturbing that yet again we see an increase in the number of people subjected to the death penalty in Iran year-on-year,” Volker Türk said. “It is high time Iran stemmed this ever-swelling tide of executions.”
The total execution count marks the highest recorded in nine years and represents a 6% increase from 2023 when 853 executions were reported.
According to BBC, the majority of executions were linked to drug-related offences, but the UN noted that dissidents and individuals associated with the 2022 protests also faced execution. A notable rise in the number of women executed was also reported.
Türk urged Iranian authorities to end the use of the death penalty. “The death penalty is incompatible with the fundamental right to life and raises the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people. And, to be clear, it can never be imposed for conduct that is protected under international human rights law,” he said.
A UN spokesperson confirmed that the figures came from several reliable sources, including Iran’s Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Iran Human Rights (IHR), and Hengaw.
On Monday, IHR reported that at least 31 women were executed in 2024, the highest number recorded in 17 years of monitoring the death penalty. Among them was Leila Ghaemi, who was convicted of strangling her husband after discovering he and his friends had sexually assaulted her young daughter. Another woman, Parvin Mousavi, was executed for drug trafficking after unknowingly transporting morphine.
Activists contend that drug offences do not meet the international legal threshold for the death penalty, which should only be imposed for “most serious crimes.”
A report from Hengaw, a Kurdish human rights group, revealed that more than half of those executed in 2024 were from Iran’s ethnic minorities, including 183 Kurds. The UN’s fact-finding mission on Iran also highlighted that ethnic and religious minorities had been disproportionately affected by the government’s crackdown on dissent since the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests.
HRANA also documented the execution of five juvenile offenders, despite international law prohibiting the death penalty for those under 18 at the time of their alleged crime.
According to Amnesty International, Iran accounted for 74% of all recorded executions globally in 2023, excluding China, where the number of executions remains classified.
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