IRAN - Iran "may be held accountable for crimes against humanity"

October 31, 2025 - IRAN. Iran "may be held accountable for crimes against humanity" 

In a press statement issued on 30 October, the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFMI) “noted a deeply concerning rise in executions in Iran this year, now at the highest recorded level since 2015. Most death penalty cases investigated by the Fact-finding Mission appear to contravene international human rights law, thereby violating the right to life."

“If executions form part of a widespread and systemic attack against a civilian population, as a matter of policy, then those responsible – including the judges who impose capital punishment – may be held accountable for crimes against humanity,” said Fact-Finding Mission expert Max du Plessis.”

Iran Human Rights welcomes the UN Fact-Finding Mission’s statement and considers it an important step toward delivering justice and holding human rights violators in Iran accountable. In September, the organisation urged the Mission to investigate executions in Iran as crimes against humanity.

IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “If the international community recognises widespread executions as crimes against humanity, it will send an unequivocal message to those running the Islamic Republic’s execution machine, from the Supreme Leader and the Head of the Judiciary to the judges who hand down the sentences, that they can be and prosecuted and held accountable. Such a step would raise the cost of executions for the authorities and slow down their execution machine.”

At least 1250 people including 36 women, have been executed in 2025, the highest recorded figure in more than 30 years.

https://iranhr.net/en/articles/8276/