ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Amnesty International on Friday said that Iranian authorities have executed over 1,000 prisoners this year, the highest rate in 15 years, calling on the international community to take immediate action to halt Iran’s “chilling assault on the right to life.”

In a report on Friday, Amnesty said that, within less than nine months, Iran’s execution rate has already “surpassed last year’s grim total of 972,” which at the time was considered the highest number of executions in a single year since 2015.

Heba Morayef, the organization’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said that “the international community must take robust, immediate action to pressure the Iranian authorities to immediately halt all planned executions, quash all death sentences,” and pause “all executions with a view to full abolition of the death penalty.”

Given the arbitrary nature of the executions, the director called on all states to exercise “universal jurisdiction over all officials reasonably suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes under international law and other grave violations of human rights.”

Universal jurisdiction refers to a country’s ability to prosecute individuals accused of committing international crimes, even if they took place outside of it.

The rights watchdog argued that the executions are often carried out on vague charges “such as ‘enmity against God’ (moharebeh), ‘corruption on earth’ (efsad-e fel-arz), and ‘armed rebellion against the state’ (baghi),” which are followed by “grossly unfair trials.”

“The authorities’ use of the death penalty has disproportionately impacted marginalized minorities, particularly those belonging to the Afghan, Baluchi, and Kurdish communities,” said Amnesty, claiming that the trend “coincides with an increase in racist and xenophobic rhetoric from Iranian officials.”

Among the executed individuals in 2025 are at least 33 political detainees and 148 Kurdish prisoners, according to a report by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights on Monday, asserting that only “about five percent” of cases were reported by state media.

Despite making up only around 12.5 percent of Iran’s population, Kurds make up 15 percent of the total execution cases in Iran.

Following the crackdown on the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Women, Life, Freedom) protests in September 2022 and the 12-Day-War with Israel in June, Iran intensified the arrest and execution of individuals on charges of espionage, treason, and posing a threat to national security.