ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A panel of UN-appointed independent human rights experts on Thursday condemned the escalating persecution of ethnic minorities by the Iranian government, naming Kurds and Baluchs as groups that have increasingly suffered arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, and torture.

"Reports point to a significant increase in arbitrary arrests, and what appears to be politically motivated sentences, including against individuals from ethnic minorities, who are often arrested under broadly defined national security charges," the panel said, highlighting a 2025 legislative expansion of espionage and national security threat definitions as a factor that has accounted for the increase.

"Minorities, particularly those whose ethnic identity intersects with religious minority status, such as Sunni Kurds and Yarsans, have been and continue to be targeted during periods of political and social unrest through narratives that portray them as threats to national security," the experts continued.

The panel consisted of numerous special rapporteurs and working groups appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, including the rapporteur on human rights in Iran, the rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, and the rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, among others.

A press release from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recounting the experts' remarks noted that at least 24 Baluchs and 22 Kurds have been executed in Iran in 2026 alone, with many more members of the respective minorities facing an imminent risk of execution.

The panel made an appeal regarding the cases of four Kurdish individuals, namely Yousef Ahmadi, Raouf Sheikh Maroufi, Mohammad Faraji and Mohsen Eslamkhah, and a Baluch man, Farhad Baranzehi, who are currently facing death sentences, asserting that their trials were allegedly marred by torture and the extraction of false confessions.

"The targeting of Kurdish and Baluch minorities extends beyond the country’s borders and includes campaigns of threats and surveillance against individuals living abroad as forms of transnational repression," the experts continued, noting the numerous individuals who have been sentenced in absentia and have their assets seized by Iranian authorities.

Both Rojhelat (Kurdish-majority western Iran) and the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan are home to insurgent groups that have fought against the Islamic Republic, with both Kurds and Baluchs having been separated from their ethnic kin by the borders of modern-day Iran.

Following the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran, Tehran ramped up the presence of security forces in the country's restive border provinces, fearing separatist uprisings and the creation of possible launchpads for military ground incursions in a bid to topple the regime.

The heightened security presence and Iranian fears of foreign intelligence infiltration gave rise to an increase in arbitrary detentions and executions.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk on Wednesday said Iran continues using executions to "instill fear," expressing his alarm that at least 56 death sentences have been carried out on those charged with national security breaches since March.

Iran has long availed of the death penalty as a means of crushing dissent, with Amnesty International recording that over 80 percent of global executions carried out in 2025 took place in the country.