UN General Assembly Adopts 72nd Resolution Condemning Gross and Systematic Human Rights Violations in Iran

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi: The resolution’s focus on the 1988 massacre and today’s rising executions underscores a continuing crime against humanity by a regime reliant on execution and torture for its survival. The regime’s dossier must be referred to the UN Security Council, and its leaders must be brought to justice.

On Thursday, December 18, 2025, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the grave, widespread, and systematic human rights violations by the Iranian regime. This resolution, the 72nd of its kind, passed with 78 votes in favor and 27 against.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, welcomed the adoption of the resolution. She noted its particular significance as it refers, for the first time, to the 1988 massacre and the continued impunity of its perpetrators, which has enabled the continuation of crimes against humanity.
She added that the resolution’s emphasis on the 1988 massacre alongside today’s escalating executions confirms the ongoing nature of a crime against humanity perpetrated by a regime that considers execution and torture essential for its survival. The persistence of these atrocities is a direct result of the impunity enjoyed by those who ordered and carried them out. The international community must move beyond condemnation and take practical steps to end this cycle of killing and criminality, including referring Iran’s human rights dossier to the UN Security Council and bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
The General Assembly resolution strongly condemns the alarming, continuous, and widespread use of the death penalty. It states that carrying out death sentences based on forced confessions, without a fair trial, in secret, or without informing the family and lawyer, constitutes a gross violation of the Iranian regime’s international obligations. The resolution emphasizes that the regime uses executions as a tool of political repression to silence opponents, protestors, and participants in peaceful demonstrations, and it expresses serious concern about the disproportionate use of capital punishment against women and ethnic and religious minorities.
The resolution also deems the execution of individuals under 18 a blatant violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, demanding its immediate cessation. It further condemns a wide range of abuses, including torture, sexual and gender-based violence, inhuman and degrading treatment, amputation, grossly disproportionate punishments, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, systematic violations of the right to a fair trial, denial of medical treatment to prisoners, and the targeted repression and systematic discrimination against women and girls, while also expressing serious concern about suspicious deaths in custody.
The resolution also condemns the suppression of popular protests, severe restrictions on freedom of expression, and the transnational repression of opponents abroad, emphasizing the need to end the systematic impunity enjoyed by human rights violators in Iran.
So far in 2025, the number of registered executions has exceeded 2,000, more than double the number in 2024. Among those executed this year, 60 were women and 6 were juvenile offenders. These shocking figures reveal the criminal nature of the regime’s systematic use of the death penalty and demonstrate its complete disregard for the most basic principles of human rights.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
18 December 2025