Friday 10 October marks the annual World Day Against the Death Penalty, an international observance initiated by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP) in 2003.  This global day for reflection and action was conceived to unify the international abolitionist movement, mobilise civil society actors and political leaders, as well as raise awareness of the cruel, inhuman, and irreversible nature of capital punishment and the significant brutalising effect it has across those societies in which it is practiced.

As the international community marks the 23rd occasion of this important observance, the focus naturally sharpens upon the continually most prolific executioner per capita globally: the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The WCADP plays a vital role in facilitating lobbying before international organisations and states, organising international events, and encouraging the formation of national and regional coalitions to strengthen the push for universal abolition.

Its efforts underscore a fundamental truth: the death penalty is a violation of the most basic of human rights to life and dignity.

The situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran represents one of the most alarming challenges to the global abolitionist movement.  Iran consistently maintains one of the highest rates of executions per capita in the world, with human rights organisations consistently documenting its extensive use of capital punishment for a wide array of charges.

The sheer scale of executions in Iran has reached unprecedented levels.  Reports from human rights groups and UN experts indicate a harrowing surge, with more than 1,100 people executed since 1 January 2025 – a staggering figure that has surpassed the already grim total for the previous year.  This rate, often amounting to several executions per day, constitutes a mass-scale assault on the right to life.

Executions in Iran are frequently carried out for drug-related offenses, which international law does not classify as being among the “most serious crimes” for which the death penalty may be permissibly applied.

Since 20 September alone, 118 people have been executed.  7 political prisoners were executed simultaneously in the early morning of Saturday 4 October.

Moreover, in Iran, the entire process leading up to the sentencing of someone to death and that sentence subsequently being carried out is systematically tainted by gross violations of due process and fair trial standards.

In death penalty cases, particularly those tried before “Revolutionary Courts” on charges of “waging war against God [or the state]” (“moharebeh”); “endangering national security”; or “corruption on earth” (“efsad-fil-arz”), defendants are often denied access to a lawyer of their choice from the time of their arrest and during interrogation.  “Evidence”, and subsequent conviction before the court, are frequently based on no more than forced confessions often extracted under severe torture, psychological duress, or other maltreatment while in custody.  Torture and maltreatment remain endemic and routine in custody/detention in Iran from the point of arrest, and this has long been known to be so.

The absence of the means by which a detainee or defendant can robustly defend themselves against a charge as well as the politically motivated nature of many prosecutions in Iran mean that those unfortunate enough to find themselves in this situation are left wanting and at the mercy of a cruel and vindictive judiciary that functions as an arm of the theocratic dictatorship ruling Iran.  This often leads to the inflicting of death sentences on the flimsiest of pretexts, thereby constituting an arbitrary deprivation of the sentencee’s life.

Today, on the World Day Against the Death Penalty, CODIR unequivocally calls for an immediate halt to all executions in Iran pending the abolition outright of the death penalty.  The Islamic Republic must institute an official moratorium on the use of capital punishment as a first, crucial step towards full abolition.  The international community, including all states and international bodies, must use every diplomatic and legal lever available to pressure the Iranian authorities to this end and to cease the current execution spree as well as ensure that all prisoners on death row are granted fair and transparent retrials that fully adhere to internationally observed legal norms and human rights standards.  The world should not remain silent in the face of this widespread and systematic violation of human rights in Iran, cognisant of the utter abhorrence of the death penalty in the eyes of the vast majority of Iranian people.

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Image used: Creative Commons | CC0 1.0 Universal