GENEVA – UN experts* today called on Iranian authorities to end the escalating arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment and arbitrary executions of ethnic minorities, particularly Kurdish and Baluch minorities.

“Iran’s ethnic minorities must be able to live in safety and dignity, free from discrimination,” the experts said.

Since the start of the protests in December 2025, authorities have reportedly detained thousands of individuals, subjecting many to torture and other ill-treatment aimed at extracting confessions. In many cases, the persons deprived of liberty in this context have been subjected to enforced disappearance.

“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 experts said.

In 2026 alone, at least 24 members of the Baluch minority and 22 members of the Kurdish minority have been executed, and many more are at imminent risk of execution.

“The 2025 law expanding the definition of espionage, as well as other broadly defined national security offences, such as ‘enmity against God (moharebeh)’, ‘spreading corruption on earth (Efsad-fil-Arz)’, and ‘armed rebellion against the foundations of the Islamic Republic of Iran (baghi)’ have been used, especially against the Kurds, as a tool to repress dissent,” said the experts.

They made an urgent appeal on behalf of four Kurdish individuals – Yousef Ahmadi, Raouf Sheikh Maroufi, Mohammad Faraji and Mohsen Eslamkhah – and a Baluch individual – Farhad Baranzehi – who face imminent risk of execution following proceedings allegedly marred by torture and forced confessions. These form part of a broader pattern of systematic repression of Iran’s Kurdish and Baluch minorities, including the earlier death sentences imposed on Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi.

“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,” they said.

The experts also noted reports of increased arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance of other ethnic minorities, including the Azeri community, among them minors.

“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,” said the experts.

The authorities have seized the assets of hundreds of Iranians abroad and recently published a list of 37 Kurdish leaders and activists abroad, accompanied by in absentia sentences and extradition requests. Counter-terrorism laws are also misused domestically and transnationally against minorities.

The experts recalled Iran’s obligations under international human rights law, including the peremptory absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and enforced disappearance, the right to liberty and security of person, guarantees of due process and fair trial, protection against arbitrary deprivation of life, and equal treatment and non-discrimination.

The experts remain in contact with Iranian authorities on these cases.