Executions in Iran estimated to have doubled in 2025, report says

Submission statement: IHR, a Norway-based network that monitors human rights abuses in Iran, reports that the Islamic Republic has carried out twice as many executions in 2025 as in 2024, as the regime hardens its internal repression following successive setbacks on the domestic and international scene.

The confirmed number of 1,500 executions carried out in Iran in 2025 is the highest in years and is itself higher than the number of confirmed executions in the world in 2024 – such counts do not include those carried out in China, Vietnam and North Korea, who do not disclose their numbers and are harder to monitor.

The momentum for the abolition of the death penalty, a step already taken by law or by practice by two-thirds of the UN member states, is reversing in recent years: the number of executions carried out globally has started increasing again in 2021 after decades of decline, to return to its 2015 levels in 2024, mainly driven by Iran, China and Saudi Arabia. In another sign of a global reversal, Burkina Faso's junta announced the reinstatement of the death penalty nearly a decade after its abolition by the civilian government, while the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Israel are currently in the process of expanding their use of the death penalty, respectively for non-military offenses, drug trafficking, and terrorism.

While Iran's increased use of the death penalty is primarily applied to convicts for drug offenses, the regime is also enacting state murder to instill fear within the population; IHR points out that the surges in executions strongly correlate with moments where the Islamic Republic felt threatened, during the Mahsa Amini protests and immediately after the Iran-Israel war.