IHRNGO Receives the Documentation Award at the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty

Presented during the closing ceremony, the award recognises decades of rigorous monitoring, reporting and advocacy by IHRNGO. The honour was shared with Singapore's civil society group, the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), which was recognised for its tireless work tracking the death penalty under highly restrictive local conditions.

Accepting the award in Paris, IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam stated: “I'm deeply honoured on behalf of Iran Human Rights to receive this recognition. We must keep in mind that this is a recognition, first of all, to all the brave men and women who have been providing us with information. As you know, in Iran, more than 90% of all executions are not announced. And in the last 19 years, we have documented about 11,000 executions. Last year alone, 1,639. Those who send us information, they do it at great risk. They risk their lives, and it's because they want the world to know what is happening there and hope that the world will not remain silent and will stand by them.”

Describing the psychological impact of documenting such a high number of executions, he said: “It's also a recognition of my colleagues who are recipients of this information. You know, normally it happens during the night by cell phones. Can you imagine—last year, 1,600 executions—it's like four to five every day. So when the phone rings, a message comes, you know that there is a human being with a name, with an age, and it happened more than 1,600 times just last year.”

The award was also dedicated to the “No Death Penalty Tuesdays” abolitionist movement behind bars which is staging its 129th weekly hunger strikes today: “Every Tuesday we have prisoners in 57 prisons who go on hunger strike to protest against daily executions.”

Finally, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam urged the international community, particularly countries that adhere to human rights principles, to “put the issue of human rights, in particular the death penalty, on the agenda in any dialogue with the Islamic Republic. Any deal with the Islamic Republic must have a moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a central demand.”

It should be noted that with Boroujen Prison in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province joining the “No Death Penalty Tuesdays” weekly mass hunger strikes this week, the abolitionist movement has now spread to 58 prisons across the country.