With Ahar Prison joining the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign, the number of prisons participating in the campaign has reached 47.
On Tuesday, June 10, 2025, the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign entered its seventy-second week. Prisoners in 47 prisons across Iran protested the escalating number of executions by going on hunger strike.
This week’s statement notes that more than 90 people have been executed since the beginning of Khordad (May 22), with 16 executed in a single day. It reads: “The death penalty violates the right to life—a fundamental right explicitly affirmed in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
The campaign strongly condemns the new wave of repression and executions, especially extrajudicial executions targeting Iranian and Afghan citizens, and calls for immediate action from international and human rights organizations.
The full text of the statement for the 72nd week of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign is as follows:
Continuation of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” Campaign in Its 72nd Week Across 47 Different Prisons
The execution-driven regime in Iran continues its relentless path, persistently accelerating the implementation of death sentences week after week. Since the beginning of Khordad (May 22) alone, more than 90 people have been executed. On June 2, 2025, 16 individuals were executed in a single day, 8 of whom were held in Qezel Hesar Prison.
Meanwhile, the authoritarian rulers, unable to respond to severe economic and livelihood crises, have spent the past year attempting to stifle public demands through suppression and execution. Tragically, these repressive measures have also targeted Afghan nationals residing in Iran. In recent months, executions of Afghan citizens have significantly increased, defenseless individuals deprived of a voice to defend themselves, whose right to life is being stripped away by Iran’s execution machinery.
The “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign vehemently condemns this fresh wave of repression and executions and urgently calls upon human rights institutions and the international community to take serious action in response to these atrocities.
This week, we once again affirm our fundamental, legal, and ethical opposition to the death penalty. Our stance is grounded in recognized principles of international law, the obligations of states to uphold human rights, and the imperative to preserve the inherent dignity of every human being.
“The death penalty violates the right to life,” a core right articulated in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). No emergency, cultural, political, or security justification can legitimize this form of punishment.
According to international law standards, including the interpretation by the UN Human Rights Committee, the death penalty, even in countries where it has not been abolished, must be strictly limited to the most serious crimes and must be imposed only through fair trial procedures. However, under Iran’s authoritarian system of “Velayat-e Faqih,” defendants are often denied access to independent legal counsel, coerced into making confessions, and subjected to opaque judicial processes. This constitutes a clear instance of ‘extrajudicial execution’.
Executions, particularly when used as tools to suppress dissent, intimidate society, or maintain political control, are fundamentally incompatible with the principle of proportionality between crime and punishment and signify a complete collapse of justice.
In light of these realities, we, the members of this campaign, express our deep concern over the ongoing and expanding issuance and execution of unjust death sentences in Iran. We demand the immediate halt to the issuance and enforcement of these sentences, and we urge all awakened consciences to take meaningful, practical steps to oppose this practice and join the “No to Execution” campaign.
We firmly believe that defending the right to life is a collective and transnational responsibility. Until the noose of execution is removed from Iran’s judicial system, the foundation for freedom and justice will remain absent, and the cycle of crime will persist.
It should be noted that, according to published news, a group of prisoners in Ahar Prison have announced that they have joined the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign since last week, in protest of the increasing wave of executions, and from now on, they will be on hunger strike every Tuesday with the members of the campaign.
Thus, the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign, in its seventy-second week on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, is marked by hunger strikes in the following 47 prisons:
Evin Prison (women’s ward, wards 4 and 8), Qezel Hesar Prison (units 3 and 4), Karaj Central Prison, Fardis Karaj Prison, Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary, Khorin Varamin Prison, Choobindar Qazvin Prison, Arak Prison, Khorramabad Prison, Yasuj Prison, Asadabad Isfahan Prison, Dastgerd Isfahan Prison, Sheiban Ahvaz Prison, Sepidar Ahvaz Prison (men’s and women’s wards), Shiraz Nezam Prison, Adelabad Prison in Shiraz (men’s and women’s wards), Firuzabad Fars Prison, Zahedan Prison (women’s ward), Borazjan Prison, Ramhormoz Prison, Behbahan Prison, Bam Prison, Kahnouj Prison, Tabas Prison, Mashhad Prison, Gonbad-e Kavus Prison, Qaemshahr Prison, Rasht Prison (men’s and women’s wards), Rudsar Prison, Haviq Talesh Prison, Ezbaram Lahijan Prison, Dizelabad Kermanshah Prison, Ardabil Prison, Tabriz Prison, Urmia Prison, Salmas Prison, Khoy Prison, Naqadeh Prison, Miandoab Prison, Mahabad Prison, Bukan Prison, Saqqez Prison, Baneh Prison, Marivan Prison, Sanandaj Prison, Kamyaran and Ahar Prison.
Week 72
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
#NoToExecutionTuesdaysCampaign
