Human Rights Day is a global reminder that every person, regardless of where they live, deserves dignity, safety, and freedom. Yet in Iran today, the gap between these universal rights and the lived reality of millions has grown wider than ever.
A Nation Where Executions Have Surpassed 1,700 Cases
In recent years, Iran has witnessed one of the highest surges in executions in its contemporary history.
Independent human rights organizations report that over 1,700 executions have taken place within a short span — a staggering figure that shows capital punishment has become more than a legal penalty. It has become a deliberate tool of intimidation and social control.
Executions are often carried out after deeply flawed judicial processes:
– trials behind closed doors,
– lack of access to independent lawyers,
– forced confessions under pressure,
– and verdicts that fail even the minimum standards of fairness.
When a state uses death as a response to dissent, the message is unmistakable:
“Do not speak — because the cost of speaking is life.”
Prisoners Sentenced Simply for Having a Voice
Alongside this wave of executions, dozens of political prisoners face severe and life-threatening sentences — including death sentences — not for violence, but for their voices.
They are students, women, workers, teachers, writers, artists, activists.
People who dreamed, questioned, protested, or imagined a different future.
Many have been charged with vague “security” accusations.
Some have been held incommunicado.
Some have been denied legal representation.
Some were sentenced after trials that lasted only minutes.
Their only “crime” was the courage to speak.
These individuals sit today in overcrowded, unsafe prisons, facing uncertainty, pressure, and in some cases imminent execution. Their names may not be widely known, but their silence is forced — not chosen.
Why Human Rights Day Matters Today
Human Rights Day is not simply a symbolic date — it is a commitment to truth and responsibility.
It reminds us that:
– the right to life cannot be negotiated,
– the right to speak cannot be criminalized,
– and the right to dignity does not depend on politics.
When more than a thousand executions take place within one nation,
when political prisoners are sentenced to death for peaceful expression,
when families wait in fear outside prison gates for news of their loved ones —
then Human Rights Day becomes more than a commemoration.
It becomes an urgent call for accountability.
Be Their Voice
The people of Iran are living some of their darkest days.
But silence — the silence of the world — only deepens injustice.
No prisoner is freed by looking away.
No execution is stopped by staying silent.
No right is protected unless someone demands its protection.
On this Human Rights Day, let us raise a collective voice for those who have been silenced:
– for those executed simply for seeking justice,
– for those awaiting execution for the “crime” of speaking,
– for families grieving in silence,
– for young people whose future has been stolen,
– for women who have stood with courage and paid a heavy price.
Human Rights Day is not a reminder of the past —
it is a promise to the future.
Let us be the voice of the people of Iran — clearly, boldly, humanely, and without pause.
English 
German 
French