Recognize Executions for Beliefs as Crimes Against Humanity
Issued on the International Day for the Abolition of the Death Penalty – 10 October
From: Iranska Föreningen mot Avrättningar (IFMA)
To all organizations, institutions, and individuals who defend human dignity.
On this International Day for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, we, members of Iranska Föreningen mot Avrättningar, raise our voices for life, justice, and humanity.
In Iran, executions continue at an alarming rate. According to reliable human rights sources, at least eight people have been executed during the first week of October 2025 on political charges. Many others remain on death row — political prisoners, civil activists, writers, ethnic and religious minorities — held under vague and arbitrary accusations such as “corruption on earth” (efsad fel-arz), “enmity against God” (moharebeh), espionage and others.
Their only real “crime” is to think differently, to demand freedom, or to express their beliefs.
Despite decades of documentation, United Nations resolutions, and tireless advocacy by civil society, executions for political, social, or religious beliefs continue without accountability. Current international frameworks fail to explicitly define such acts for what they truly are: crimes against humanity.
We therefore call on all international human rights organizations, governments, and legal institutions to unite in the creation of a binding international mechanism that recognizes executions carried out for political, social, humanitarian, or cultural expression — including beliefs, writings, and acts of conscience — as crimes against humanity.
- Recognizes executions carried out for political, social, or religious beliefs as crimes against humanity.
- Holds states and officials accountable for these acts under international law.
- Protects the right to life as a non-negotiable human right.
This recognition is long overdue. Executing people for their ideas is not an act of justice — it is state-sponsored murder. It silences societies, destroys families, and poisons the moral conscience of nations.
We are tired — not of fighting, but of witnessing how the authority of politicians continues to prevail over humanity.
Let this day, 10 October, be more than remembrance. Let it be the beginning of a new global movement — one that demands life over death, justice over cruelty, and law over impunity.
Because life is a human right, not a privilege.
Because the defense of humanity must never yield to the dirty play of politicians.
With respect, hope, and determination,
