The UN Human Rights Office raised alarm Jan. 19 over a "sharp hike" in the number of executions globally in 2025. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk articulated the report's key concerns, stating:

My Office monitored an alarming increase in the use of the capital punishment in 2025, especially for offences not meeting the "most serious crimes" threshold required under international law, the continued execution of people convicted of crimes committed as children, as well as persistent secrecy around executions.

This threshold is established by Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights. The increase primarily came from executions for drug-related offenses in a small number of retentionist states. These are countries that continue to retain capital punishment, as opposed to the growing number of abolitionist states. which do not employ the death penalty.

The Special Procedures of the UN 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 May 21 suicide attack on bus serving an army-run school in Khuzdar district of Pakistan's Balochistan province killed five people, three of them children. Islamabad, which faces accusations it was involved in last month's attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, quickly pointed the finger at neighboring India and Afghanistan. Both New Delhi and Kabul have denied the allegations. Balochistan has been the subject of a decades-long armed struggle for autonomy. Ethnic Baloch communities have accused Pakistani authorities of disenfranchisement, neglect and forced disappearances.

The international Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC) called upon UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on March 25 to urgently intervene in the repression of peaceful protests in Pakistan's conflicted Balochistan province. The group urged Guterres to secure the immediate release of Dr. Mahrang Baloch and other members of the Baloch Yekjehti Committee, a local rights group. Dr. Baloch and several of her comrades were detained at a protest in provincial capital Quetta against enforced disappearances.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Feb. 14 reported that the Iranian government is systematically targeting the Azeri ethnic minority through the imposition of "abusive" criminal charges and severe prison sentences aimed at silencing dissent. The crackdown has intensified since October, with at least two dozen Azeri activists imprisoned following unfair trials. These activists have been handed terms ranging from three to 14 years on charges including "propaganda against the state," "conspiracy against the country," and "forming an opposition group against the state."

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation, rampant rights abuses and ongoing political dysfunction in Balochistan province in a statement issued Aug. 30.

The insurgent Sunni Baluch group Jaish al-Adl on April 3 carried out simultaneous attacks on bases of the security forces in Iran's southeastern Sistan & Baluchestan province, leaving five troops dead. The attacks targeted a Border Guard post in Chabahar, and a Revolutionary Guards base in Rask. Troops gave pursuit, and skirmishes in the areas continue, with several more reported dead on both sides. Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice, is largely made up of followers of the banned militant organization Jundullah (Soldiers of God), and claims that it "defends the rights of the Sunni Baluch people." (Iran International, TRT World, EFE)

At least five Chinese nationals and one Pakistani were killed in a car bombing March 26 in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The victims, employees of Wuhan-based engineering firm Gezhouba Group Co, were en route to the Dasu hydropower project on the Indus River. It was the third attack on Chinese interests in Pakistan in a week. No group has claimed responsibility for the car bombing, but the two previous attacks were claimed by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA)—including an assault on the Chinese-funded strategic port of Gwadar. (TNH)