GENEVA, Jan 19, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Iran appears to be using executions "as a 
tool of state intimidation", the United Nations said Monday, as it denounced 
a jump in capital punishment globally in 2025.

The Islamic republic reportedly executed 1,500 people last year, UN rights 
chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

"The scale and pace of executions suggest a systematic use of capital 
punishment as a tool of state intimidation, with disproportionate impact on 
ethnic minorities and migrants," he warned.

The spike in executions in Iran -- which according to rights groups is the 
world's most prolific executioner after China -- had contributed to "an 
alarming increase" in the use of capital punishment worldwide last year, Turk 
said.

While the overall global trend continues to move towards universal abolition 
of the death penalty, Iran and a handful of other states such as Saudi Arabia 
and the United States saw executions surge.

Many of those executions were "for offences not meeting the 'most serious 
crimes' threshold required under international law", Turk said, also 
criticising "the continued execution of people convicted of crimes committed 
as children, as well as persistent secrecy around executions".

- Public executions -

The sharp hike had especially been driven by a growing number of executions 
for drug-related offences not involving intentional killing.

"This is not only incompatible with international law, but also ineffective 
in deterring crime," Turk insisted.

In the case of Iran, at least 47 percent of executions in 2025 had been 
related to drug offences, the rights office said.

The percentage was even higher in Saudi Arabia, where 78 percent of the 356 
people reportedly executed there last year were sentenced for drug-related 
crimes.

"At least two among those executed in Saudi Arabia were convicted of crimes 
committed as children," Turk pointed out.

In the United States, meanwhile, 47 executions were carried out in 2025 -- 
the highest number in 16 years, the rights office said, stressing that the 
broadened use of gas asphyxiation for executions there raised "serious 
concerns of torture or cruel punishment".

It also highlighted the ongoing public executions in Afghanistan, "in breach 
of international law".

At least 24 people were meanwhile executed in Somalia last year and 17 in 
Singapore, it said, adding that secrecy around the death penalty in China and 
North Korea made it "difficult to obtain accurate numbers".

And in Israel, the rights office pointed to a series of legislative proposals 
seeking to expand the use of the death penalty with mandatory capital 
punishment provisions applying exclusively to Palestinians.

"This raises serious concerns about violation of their due process rights, as 
well as other breaches of international human rights law and international 
humanitarian law," it said, also slamming executions carried out by Hamas in 
Gaza as "blatant human rights violations".

"The death penalty is not an effective crime-control tool, and it can lead to 
the execution of innocent people," Turk said, reiterating his call for all 
states to "move towards full abolition".