Iran has executed at least 40 people, including 18 protesters, on “national security grounds” since the start of 2026, the United Nations said Monday. UN rights chief Volker Turk expressed that he felt “deeply for the people in Iran, caught between war and cruel repression” during his address to the UN Human Rights Council.
Rights groups note that Iran executes more people annually than any other nation besides China. Turk lamented that Tehran had ramped up repression since a deadly crackdown on protests in January, which came on top of the Middle East war sparked in February by US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
He welcomed the announcement on Sunday that the United States and Iran had agreed to a peace deal, stressing that “it is clear all sides need to exercise maximum restraint and work to implement the agreement reached, quickly and in good faith.”
The conflict, he said, “has had a devastating impact on human rights across the region and around the world.”
Repression in Iran was dire even before the war. In late December, a protest movement sparked by economic pains quickly expanded into mass anti-government rallies, which were met by a crackdown that rights groups say killed thousands.
Iranian authorities portrayed the protests as riots backed by the United States and Israel and said the violence killed around 3,000 people, though rights groups abroad put the toll higher and accused the security forces of firing at demonstrators.
“Since killing thousands of people during the egregious crushing of protests in January, the authorities have intensified their brutal crackdown, arresting thousands and imposing even more severe restrictions on civic space,” Turk said.
