Urgent appeal: Rescue of over 1,500 prisoners from Ghezelhesar prison

15 October 2025
Urgent appeal

In protest against imminent executions, 1,500 prisoners in Ghezel Hesar Prison are currently on hunger strike. Their
condition is critical and requires immediate action by the United Nations and all relevant international institutions.
According to confirmed reports, 1,200 people have already been executed by the ruling regime in Iran in the first nine
months of 2025, including at least five minors under the age of 18.
A significant number of these executions took place in Ghezel Hesar Prison.
In the past 22 days alone, at least 170 prisoners have been executed in various Iranian prisons – that is one execution
every three hours – a scale that is unprecedented since 1989.
In order to prevent a possible massacre and stop the executions by the ruling regime in Iran, we urgently call on:

• the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
• the United Nations Human Rights Council,
• the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, and
• the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights Violations in Iran
  to take immediate action to:

grant independent human rights observers immediate access to all prisons, in particular Ghezel Hesar Prison.
We are doing everything in our power to make the voice of the people, and especially of women in Iran, heard by the
international community and to exert pressure to stop executions, torture, repression and all other inhuman acts of this
kind.
Yours sincerely

halt all death sentences and their implementation immediately, and

Sincerely,

H. Amani,

Copies Sent To:

• Mr. António Guterres – UN Secretary-General
  • sgcentral@un.org, hqpi00@unhcr.org
• Ms. Mai Sato – UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in Iran
  • hrc-sr-iran@un.org
• Ms. Sara Hossain – Chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran
  • ffmiran@un.org
• Mr. Morris Tidball-Binz – Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
  • hrc-sr-eje@un.org
• Ms. Alice Jill Edwards – Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
  • hrc-sr-torture@un.org
• Ms. Gabriella Citroni – Chair of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances