14 October 2024 :
October 10, 2024 - IRAN. Global Campaign to End Executions in Iran Gains Support from 1,500 Dignitaries Across 78 Countries in Response to Maryam Rajavi’s Appeal
The Iran Human Rights Monitor (Iran HRM) has issued a powerful statement today, echoing the global call to end executions in Iran, with support from 1,500 dignitaries from 78 countries, in response to Maryam Rajavi’s appeal. The statement highlights the alarming increase in executions under Masoud Pezeshkian, the regime’s president, with hundreds of prisoners, including women, executed in August 2024 alone.
Citing Amnesty International’s data, Iran HRM notes that Iran accounted for 74% of all recorded executions worldwide in 2023, a trend that has escalated under Pezeshkian’s leadership. In March 2024, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran (FFMI) reported that many death sentences were handed down after “summary” trials. The FFMI concluded that several human rights abuses by the Iranian regime amount to “crimes against humanity,” including murder, imprisonment, torture, and sexual violence.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran, Professor Javaid Rehman, echoed these concerns in his July 2024 report, which labeled the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners as “genocide” and highlighted the regime’s continued use of mass executions, torture, and other inhumane acts against the opposition with “genocidal intent.”
Iran HRM also underscores the regime’s use of executions as a tool to suppress dissent and instill fear in the population. “Iranian authorities are using these executions for political purposes, seeking to instill fear and terror to prevent potential uprisings,” the statement reads.
Since the start of 2024, political prisoners in 22 Iranian prisons have been staging weekly hunger strikes as part of the “No to Executions” campaign, which has gained traction both within Iran and globally. In response to this campaign, Iranian dissidents and human rights activists have thrown their support behind Maryam Rajavi’s call to abolish the death penalty. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the NCRI, reiterated her stance during the International Jurists’ Conference on August 24, 2024, in Paris.
Iran HRM concludes its statement by calling on the global community to stand united against the regime’s human rights abuses and support the ongoing “No to Executions” campaign.
Global Call for “No to Executions” in Iran
According to Amnesty International, “Iran alone accounted for 74% of all recorded executions” in the world in 2023. This alarming trend has intensified after the new president took office. In August 2024 alone, over 100 prisoners, including 10 women, have been executed, indicating the persistence of this pattern.
Among the executed were several political dissidents, including Reza Rasaei, arrested during the uprising in November 2022 in Shahriar, Tehran province.
In its latest report in March 2024, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran (FFMI) wrote: “The legal proceedings leading to death sentences were held in a summary fashion amid repeated calls by the State authorities to expedite the trials and carry out executions.” The FFMI has stated that “many of the serious human rights violations outlined in the present report amount to crimes against humanity, specifically those of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence.”
In his latest report in July, titled “Atrocity Crimes and grave violations of human rights,” Professor Javaid Rehman, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, described the 1988 massacre, during which 30,000 political prisoners were executed, as a “crime against humanity” and “genocide” and wrote, “There is considerable evidence that mass killings, torture and other inhumane acts against members of the PMOI were conducted with genocidal intent.”
Iranian authorities are using these executions for political purposes, seeking to instill fear and terror to prevent the potential outbreak of uprisings by the Iranian people. Thus, any execution carried out under the ruling theocracy should be recognized as political in nature. Unfortunately, on the global stage, the lack of response to ongoing suppression, massacres, and executions over previous decades has emboldened the clerical regime to persist in its suppression and torture, particularly through executions.
Since the start of 2024, political prisoners in 20 Iranian prisons have been staging a hunger strike every Tuesday as part of the “No to Executions” campaign to halt executions in Iran. This campaign is expanding within Iranian prisons. Additionally, a significant movement has emerged outside of Iran to support this cause.
Against this backdrop, we endorse and support Maryam Rajavi’s call to end executions in Iran and her steadfast commitment to abolishing the death penalty, as outlined in her Ten-Point Plan for Iran’s future over the past two decades. She reaffirmed this call at the International Jurists’ Conference on August 24, 2024, in Paris.
