Iran: Türk says executions used to instill fear, suppress dissent
Comment by UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Iran executions
United Nations OHCHR, August 5, 2026
I am alarmed by the rise in executions and death sentences issued in Iran since March, and that capital punishment continues to be used to instill fear among the population and suppress dissent. I urge the authorities to urgently halt all executions and move towards the abolition of the death penalty.
Since 19 March 2026, at least 56 people have been executed on national security-related charges, including 27 individuals in cases linked to protests at the start of the year. Over 100 others are at risk of execution on similar charges. Executions for drug-related offences are also continuing at an alarming rate.
Persistent lack of fair trial and due process guarantees are deeply troubling. Confessions have allegedly been obtained under torture and other ill-treatment. Several executions have reportedly been carried out in public. Some have reportedly been carried out only weeks after arrest. Twelve defendants were reportedly sentenced to death following a single three-hour closed-door hearing.
The death penalty is incompatible with the right to life and irreconcilable with human dignity. Such punishment has no place in our world.
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Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan for Iran’s Future
OIAC
The Ten-Point Plan for Iran’s Future was first presented by Maryam Rajavi, the President-Elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), in December 2006 at a session of the Council of Europe. This plan encapsulates the aspirations of the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance for a future Iran. This plan has been repeatedly recognized by resolutions from the U.S. Congress, several European parliaments, and prominent international figures as a vision for a free Iran.
1. Rejection of velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule). Affirmation of the people’s sovereignty in a republic founded on universal suffrage and pluralism;
2. Freedom of speech, freedom of political parties, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press and the internet. Dissolution and disbanding of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the terrorist Qods Force, plainclothes groups, the unpopular Bassij, the Ministry of Intelligence, Council of the Cultural Revolution, and all suppressive patrols and institutions in cities, villages, schools, universities, offices, and factories;
3. Commitment to individual and social freedoms and rights in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Disbanding all agencies in charge of censorship and inquisition. Seeking justice for massacred political prisoners, prohibition of torture, and the abolishment of the death penalty;
4. Separation of religion and state, and freedom of religions and faiths;
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U.S. and Iran trade more missile strikes; Dr. Majid Sadeghpour weighs in
Following U.S. airstrikes on Iran in response to a foiled Iranian attack on American assets, Dr. Majid Sadeghpour, Political Director of the OIAC, joined Capitol Review to discuss the path forward. He argued that the solution to Iran is neither war nor appeasement, but the Iranian people and their organized resistance. Dr. Sadeghpour urged the international community to stand with the Iranian people’s struggle for a democratic republic and support their fight for freedom.
The Playbook That Forced Iran’s Regime to Stop Its War Machine — Still Works Today
Khomeini rejected international peace initiatives for years before finally accepting the 1988 ceasefire, a decision he likened to “drinking a chalice of poison.” This video examines the events that forced the regime to retreat and why its greatest fear has always been the Iranian people and their organized resistance. The lesson of 1988 remains relevant today: lasting change in Iran will come from within, not through appeasement.
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