Iran: Human rights investigators alarmed by ‘escalating repression’ and increase in executions following Israeli airstrikes

At a briefing at U.N. headquarters in New York – the first time the mission has presented its findings to the General Assembly – President Sara Hossain said conditions had deteriorated since Israeli airstrikes, which reportedly killed more than 1,000 people.

According to Iranian government figures, 276 civilians, including 38 children and 102 women, were among the dead and more than 5,600 people were injured. Civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities and schools, was damaged.

The government also reported that Tehran’s notorious Evin prison was struck without warning.

Around 80 people, including prisoners, family members (the attack took place during visiting hours), staff and at least one child were killed. The prison housed around 1,500 inmates at the time, including many human rights defenders and activists.

Ms Hossain also expressed concern over Iran’s response, which included missile strikes against Israel, which officials said left 31 people dead and more than 3,300 injured.

“Systemic attack against a civilian population”

The consequences of the strikes, she explained, led the Iranian government to a domestic repression that further eroded respect for the right to life.

THE Human Rights CouncilDesignated investigators documented the arrest of thousands of people, including lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders and people expressing their opinions about the conflict on social media.

This year, the number of executions has increased in Iran, reaching the highest level recorded since 2015.

Most of the death penalty cases investigated by the mission appear to violate international human rights law. A law was passed expanding the use of the death penalty for “espionage” and criminalizing the publication of content on social networks that the government considers “false information”.

“If the executions are part of a widespread and systemic attack against a civilian population, then, as a matter of principle, those responsible – including judges who impose the death penalty – could be held accountable for crimes against humanity“, said Max du Plessis, rights expert at the Fact-Finding Mission.

The recent crackdown has also affected ethnic and religious minorities, with more than 330 Kurds and large numbers of Arabs arrested, and hundreds of thousands of Afghans expelled, investigators reported.

Members of the Baha’i religious minority have been accused of being “Zionist spies” and some have been arrested during house searches and their property confiscated.

Impunity for “honor killings”

The persistence of other serious forms of violence, including cases of femicide (the intentional killing of women and girls based on their gender), have been reported in recent months.

The Mission received credible information that 60 such cases occurred between March and September 2025. “Honor killings” and other forms of gender-based violence, the mission reported, take place with impunity.

Businesses providing services to women refusing to comply with mandatory hijab laws were reportedly closed and surveillance intensified. Reports also indicate that the “morality police” have recently returned to patrol the streets.

The Fact-Finding Mission has documented an increase in cases of transnational repression, including interrogations, threats and surveillance of Iranian journalists’ families abroad. He received credible reports that more than 45 media workers in seven countries faced credible threats.

“Acts of denial of justice are not neutral,” Ms Hossain said. “Failure to address injustice prolongs the suffering of victims and undermines the State’s obligations under international human rights law to ensure accountability, truth, justice and reparations..”

“The rights to life and liberty under unprecedented threat”

In his report at the General AssemblyTHE independent human rights expert on IranMai Sato, condemned the Israeli and American strikes as an illegal use of force in violation of the United Nations Charterwhile expressing deep concern that the end of hostilities has not brought any relief to the Iranian people.

“External aggression fueled deeper internal repression,” she said. “The rights of the Iranian people to life and liberty are under unprecedented threat. Saito described the increase in executions as a deliberate policy of fear and retaliation, noting that many executions followed unfair trials or vague charges related to national security.

The Special Rapporteur – who is not a UN staff member and receives no salary for her work – also highlighted a growing pattern of transnational repression, with Iranian authorities targeting dissidents abroad through intimidation, surveillance and threats, and called on other UN member states to support at-risk Iranian civil society actors and coordinate efforts to counter transnational repression.