The UN Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council on Sept. 29 reported that over 1,000 people have been executed in Iran in 2025, warning that this represents a dramatic escalation that violates international human rights law. The UN experts wrote: "With an average of more than nine hangings per day in recent weeks, Iran appears to be conducting executions at an industrial scale that defies all accepted standards of human rights protection."

A 2017 Amendment to Iran's Anti-Narcotics Law abolished the death penalty for lower-level drug offenses and introduced a mechanism to limit capital punishment by commuting many death sentences to life imprisonment. Despite this, executions for drug-related offenses have steadily risen since 2020 and surged in 2024, which saw 503 drug-related executions–more than 50% of all executions in Iran that year.

Experts also warned that drug-related executions in Iran disproportionately target minorities from marginalized and underdeveloped regions. Although constituting only 2-6 percent of Iran’s population, the Baluch ethnic minority accounted for at least 17% of drug-related executions in 2024.

Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states that every human being has the inherent right to life and international law limits capital punishment to the most serious crimes, like intentional killing. As a state party to the ICCPR, Iran’s continued use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses stands in direct tension with its international human rights commitments.

From JURIST, Sept. 29. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Note: Iran and its regional rival Saudi Arabia are largely responsible for the global surge in known executions over the past year.