Execution of Ethnic Minorities in Iran in 2024

As this report and previous annual reports demonstrate, ethnic minorities in Iran are overrepresented in death penalty statistics. According to the present report, 145 people were executed in the 4 ethnic provinces of West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Sistan and Baluchistan, and Kurdistan in 2024. This number was 150 in 2023, 130 in 2022, 62 in 2021 and 60 in 2020.

As the execution of ethnic minorities are not implemented exclusively in their home provinces, it is difficult to identify the exact number of executions of each ethnic minority group. In 2024, execution of Baluch and Kurdish prisoners were carried out in 13 and 16 different provinces, respectively. Furthermore, information about those executed does not always include their ethnicity. Executions of Baluch prisoners are in many cases carried out in prisons outside the Baluchistan region.

In 2024, more than 88% of the executions recorded by IHRNGO in East and West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Sistan and Baluchistan were not announced by the authorities.

Furthermore, the absolute majority of those executed for their political affiliation belong to ethnic groups, the Kurdish in particular. An overview of IHRNGO reports between 2010-2024 shows that at least 164 people were executed for affiliation to banned political and armed groups. Of those, 85 (52%) were Kurdish, 45 (29%) were Baluch and 24 (16%) were Arab, with a majority of them being Sunni Muslims.

There are several possible reasons for the overrepresentation of ethnic groups in execution figures. One explanation might be that the authorities use more violence to create fear due to higher opposition amongst the population in those regions. During the nationwide protests following Jina (Mahsa) Amini’s state killing, Kurdish regions and Baluchistan were the areas with the longest-lasting protests, and almost half of all protesters killed on the streets were from Baluchistan, Kurdistan and other Kurdish towns in other provinces. The authorities’ targeted propaganda labelling its critics in the ethnic regions as separatists, as well as the presence of armed groups in those regions makes it easier for authorities to justify death sentences under the pretext of fighting terrorism and separatism. All this has led to less domestic and international sensitivity to the execution of people from ethnic regions, and thus, a lower political cost for the atrocities. Finally, with these regions already suffering from poor socio-economic conditions, local judicial offices also act more lawlessly and arbitrarily in the four ethnic provinces.

Execution of Baluch minority groups

There are no official figures for the population of Baluch minorities in Iran, but different sources estimate the number to be between 1.5[1] and 4.8 million,[2] accounting for 2-6% of Iran’s total population. However, research and monitoring by IHRNGO shows that at least 108 Baluch prisoners were executed, accounting for 11% of all recorded executions in Iran in 2024. 81 of the 108 executions took place in prisons of 12 provinces outside Sistan and Baluchistan province. The gross overrepresentation of Baluch people in the execution figures in previous years (20% in 2023 and 30% in 2022) in Iran has elicited reactions from rights groups and the international community.[3] This might have contributed to a relative reduction in Baluch executions in 2024.

Facts about Baluch executions in 2024:

• At least 108 individuals from Baluch minorities were executed, accounting for 11% of the total executions in 2024
• 85 were executed for drug-related offences, accounting for nearly 17% of all drug-related executions in 2024, compared to 138 drug-related executions (30%) in 2023
• 21 were executed on murder charges (qisas), compared to 22 executions for murder charges in 2023
• 2 were executed for security-related charges, compared to 7 security-related executions in 2023
• 2  women were amongst those executions (3 women in 2023)
• Only 11 (10%) of the executions were officially announced
• Executions took place in 21 prisons, compared to 27 in 2023, 22 in 2022 and 10 in 2021
• Sistan and Baluchestan, Kerman, and South Khorasan were the provinces with the highest number of executed Baluch individuals, with 27, 20, and 19 people, respectively.

Execution of Kurdish minorities:

As aforementioned, Kurdish prisoners are grossly overrepresented among security-related executions as they account for more than 50% of those executed for affiliation to banned opposition groups in the last 15 years.

According to different NGO sources Kurds account for around 10-13% of Iran’s population.[4] Estimating the exact number of Kurdish individuals executed for ordinary crime charges in Iran presents significant challenges due to several factors. Unlike ethnic groups like the Baluch, Kurdish people’s surnames do not always clearly reflect their ethnicity, making it difficult to identify and verify cases based solely on their names or official records. Additionally, Kurdish communities are spread across multiple provinces, including Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, and Ilam, as well as other regions, further complicating efforts to provide precise figures. Thus, the figures presented here may be grossly underestimated.

Facts about Kurdish executions in 2024:

• At least 84 Kurdish minorities were executed, accounting for nearly 9% of the total executions in 2024
• 37 were executed for drug-related offences, accounting for around 7% of all drug-related executions in 2024
• 38 were executed on murder charges (qisas)
• 9 were executed for security-related charges
• Only 6 (7%) of the executions were officially announced
• Executions took place in 16 different provinces
• West Azerbaijan, Alborz/Tehran, and Ilam were the provinces with the highest number of executed Kurdish individuals, with 23, 14, and 9 people, respectively.

[1] The Iran Primer, Iran Minorities 2: Ethnic Diversity, 3 September 2013, https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2013/sep/03/iran-minorities-2-ethnic-diversity

[2] Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation, West Balochistan, https://unpo.org/members/7922

[3] UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Javaid Rehman, Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2024, op. cit.

[4] See, for example, Minority Rights Group, Kurds in Iran, 2017, https://minorityrights.org/communities/kurds-4/; and Institut Kurde, The Kurdish Population, https://www.institutkurde.org/en/info/the-kurdish-population-1232551004