In November 2025, the UN Third Committee adopted a bold resolution on human rights violations in Iran. The resolution, which refers to mass executions, arbitrary arrests, discrimination against women and minorities, cross-border intimidation, and the 1988 massacre, once again demonstrated that human rights violations in Iran are not exceptions but a systematic policy.
When the world can no longer look away
The condemnation of Iran is the result of years of efforts by victims’ families, human rights activists, and independent organisations such as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
At the UN Third Committee meeting on Iran, Andrew Sigley, the UK’s First Secretary for Human Rights, stated: “Iran continues to target civil society beyond its borders. This activity seeks to silence journalists, activists and others responsible for documenting serious human rights violations. We are committed to working with international partners to combat this malign activity.”
Killing as a tool of governance
In 2025, the judicial system of the current regime in Iran issued and carried out death sentences with record intensity. According to reports by the NCRI, November 2025 was the bloodiest month in the past 37 years with 336 executions – although October (with 285 executions) and September (200 executions) respectively had already set new records under the rule of the supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei.
According to the same source, the number of executions since the beginning of Masoud Pezeshkian’s tenure has surpassed the shocking figure of 2500. These numbers reflect the catastrophic human rights situation in Iran in alarming terms, providing clear evidence of a policy of repression and a direct threat to the right to life for millions of people. The NCRI’s Women’s Committee has also pointed to a wave of executions targeting women, reaching 55 women this year, and has reported the names of seven minors who were under the legal age at the time of their alleged offences. These figures reflect the fact that the regime’s judiciary, trapped in a crisis of overthrow and a complete political and social deadlock, sees its survival in creating an atmosphere of fear through widespread executions.
A reckoning at the European Parliament
On 10 December 2025, I had the opportunity to attend high-level conference at the European Parliament in Brussels, held on the International Human Rights Day. The event focused on the escalating human rights crisis in Iran and provided a crucial platform to raise awareness of the systematic repression and killings perpetrated by the Iranian regime.
Being present was significant not only as a witness, but also as a voice for those whose lives and freedoms are suppressed, particularly political prisoners who face imminent execution for their affiliation with democratic opposition groups such as the Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organisation (MEK/PMOI) and NCRI. Eighteen individuals currently face death sentences for their association with the MEK/PMOI. Among them are Zahra Tabari, a 67-year-old electrical engineering graduate from University of Borås in Sweden, and Mohammad Java Vafaei a 30-year-old boxing champion and coach.
In addition to executions, the regime perpetuates widespread oppression through arbitrary arrests, torture, denial of medical care, and the suppression of women and minority groups. In Lakan Prison, political prisoners including Manouchehr Fallah, Peyman Farahavar, and Yaghoub Derakhshan face severe health crises without adequate treatment.
Demands for action
The conference highlighted the urgent need for accountability. During the sessions, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the NCRI, described Iran as a state of unprecedented crisis and repression. She emphasised that the regime, feeling increasingly threatened by popular dissent and the activities of resistance units, has intensified executions and suppression both inside and outside Iran.
Rajavi called for decisive action, urging MEPs to press for an end to the silence of the EU External Action Service and the Council of Ministers vis-à-vis the human rights violations in Iran. “The silence on the situation of the 18 political prisoners, whose only ‘crime’ is supporting the PMOI, must not continue. All relations with the regime must be conditioned on the halt of executions. They must close the embassies and institutions affiliated with the regime that serve as centers of support for the regime’s cross-border repression. They must place the IRGC and the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence on the terrorist list”, the NCRI president-elect stressed.
Europe’s long hesitation
MEP Milan Zver, who chaired the first session at the conference, criticised Europe’s history of inaction, noting that: “…for too long, parts of Europe have fallen into patterns of appeasement, hoping that regime could somehow be moderated. But the events of recent years have shown that this approach does not work”.
The conference brought together senior European political figures and internationally recognised human rights advocates, including former heads of government, members of the European Parliament, and legal and civil society leaders.
The speakers collectively condemned the decades-long pattern of Western appeasement towards the Iranian regime, highlighting that such policies have failed to prevent systematic repression, mass executions and the targeting of political prisoners. They also emphasised the importance of supporting the NCRI and Rajavi as the legitimate representatives of the Iranian people’s democratic aspirations. Drawing parallels with past atrocities, such as the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, the speakers urged immediate accountability for state-sanctioned crimes, protection of dissidents and human rights defenders abroad, and robust international measures to prevent further executions.
International pressure starts to mount
During the conference, a representative of the NGO Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran announced that a major campaign statement had been endorsed by over 300 prominent women from around the world, demanding a halt on the execution of political prisoner Zahra Tabari and other political prisoners on death row. It was highlighted that this distinguished coalition of signatories includes former presidents, prime ministers, and ministers, as well as parliamentarians, senators, Nobel laureates, and sports personalities.
The price of silence
The pattern of killings and widespread executions in Iran is the direct result of the international community’s policy of appeasement and retreat in the face of the regime. Whenever the regime has faced warnings, condemnations, or limited pressure, it has responded without fear of consequences through repression, torture, and execution. Appeasement by certain Western governments has convinced the regime that it can suppress every protest, violate human rights, massacre dissidents, and escalate executions, all while continuing its rule without any decisive response from the world, repeating this cycle of violence again and again.
Remaining silent in the face of such crimes amounts, in practice, to complicity. When more than 2,500 people are executed in a single year and no firm or binding action is taken by the international community, this sends a clear signal to the Iranian regime that it can continue its barbaric course without consequence. Despite severe repression, popular resistance inside the country remains active. In the past month alone, more than 240 acts of protest and field operations have been reported.
From words to recognition
What these resistance cells, known as the resistance units, need above all else is recognition of their struggle by the free nations of the world. The least the world can do is condemn human rights violations in Iran. The most effective response is to recognise the organised resistance of the Iranian people and their right to pursue freedom, a goal achievable only through the struggle to overthrow this regime.
– Guy Verhofstadt, former Belgian Prime
– Matteo Renzi, former Prime Minister of Italy
– MEP Petras Auštrevičius
– MEP Dainius Žalimas
– MEP Pekka Toveri, Major General (Ret.)
– MEP Andrey Kovatchev
– Ambassador Stephen Rapp, Former chief of prosecutions at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
– Kumi Naidoo, former Secretary General of Amnesty International
– Mark Ellis, Executive Director, International Bar Association (IBA)
– Dominique Attias, Human Rights lawyer, former Vice President of the Paris Bar Association and former President of the Council of European Bars and Law Societies
– Leoluca Orlando, former Mayor of Palermo, and current MEP
– Dorien Rookmaker, former MEP
– Francisco Assis, former MEP
– Ryszard Czarnecki, former MEP
– Struan Stevenson
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