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Iran appears to be using executions “as a tool of state intimidation,” the United Nations said on Monday, as it denounced a jump in capital punishment globally in 2025.
The Islamic republic reportedly executed 1,500 people last year, UN rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement.
“The scale and pace of executions suggest a systematic use of capital punishment as a tool of state intimidation, with disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities and migrants,” he warned.
The spike in executions in Iran, which according to rights groups is the world’s most prolific executioner after China, had contributed to “an alarming increase” in the use of capital punishment worldwide last year, Türk said.
While the overall global trend continues to move towards universal abolition of the death penalty, Iran and a handful of other states such as Saudi Arabia and the United States saw executions surge.
Many of those executions were “for offences not meeting the ‘most serious crimes’ threshold required under international law,” Türk said, also criticising “the continued execution of people convicted of crimes committed as children, as well as persistent secrecy around executions.”
The sharp hike had especially been driven by a growing number of executions for drug-related offences not involving intentional killing.
“This is not only incompatible with international law but also ineffective in deterring crime,” Türk insisted.
In the case of Iran, at least 47% of executions in 2025 had been related to drug offences, the rights office said.
The percentage was even higher in Saudi Arabia, where 78% of the 356 people reportedly executed there last year were sentenced for drug-related crimes.
“At least two among those executed in Saudi Arabia were convicted of crimes committed as children, which raises serious questions with respect to children’s rights in particular,” Türk said.
In the United States, meanwhile, 47 executions were carried out in 2025, the highest number in 16 years, the rights office said, stressing that the broadened use of gas asphyxiation for executions there raised “serious concerns of torture or cruel punishment.”
Additional sources • AFP