For Immediate Release:
International Human Rights Day – December 10
A Call to Action Against Global Repression
Today, on Human Rights Day, we are reminded that the promise of universal rights remains unfulfilled. Around the world, governments continue to violate fundamental freedoms through executions, torture, arbitrary detention, discrimination, gender-based persecution, and violent repression of dissent. This day is not symbolic, it is a call to collective action.
In Iran, the past year marked one of the deadliest periods in decades. More than 900 people were executed in 2024, and over 1,000 more in the first nine months of 2025, including political prisoners convicted in trials lasting minutes.
Between 400 and 650 political detainees, including at least 64 women, remain in prison. Torture, deaths in custody, and targeted persecution of minorities such as Bahá’ís and Christian converts continue with impunity.
Islamic Republic of Iran continues violating human rights systematically, and it’s repression extends beyond its borders, threatening dissidents in Canada, the UK, and Europe. The regime is responsible for many killings in Middle East which must be stopped.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed a system of gender apartheid, excluding women and girls from education, work, and public life. Arbitrary arrests, floggings, torture, and extrajudicial killings persist, while minority groups, especially the Hazara community, face ongoing, systematic persecution.
In Iraq and Syria, impunity defines the landscape. Iraqi activists continue to face detention, disappearance, and assassination without accountability. Syria remains one of the world’s most severe human-rights catastrophes: tens of thousands remain missing or detained, torture is institutionalized, and extrajudicial killings — including the execution of 46 Druze civilians in Suwayda, continue.
Türkiye continues its sweeping crackdown on critics using politicized terrorism laws. Since 2016, millions have been investigated, hundreds of thousands detained, and more than 70,000 arrested for peaceful political activity or expression. Kurds, journalists, lawyers, and human-rights defenders face coercion, arrest, and routine mistreatment.
In Gaza and the West Bank, people are trapped between conflict, occupation, and internal repression. In Gaza, the war has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths, massive displacement, and the collapse of essential services. Hamas simultaneously arrests and tortures critics and political rivals. In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority continues its own pattern of arbitrary arrests and abuse of detainees.
Egypt remains one of the most repressive environments in the region, with 60,000–65,000 political prisoners and more than 1,160 documented deaths in custody over the past decade, largely due to torture and medical neglect. Journalists, activists, and LGBTQ individuals face constant persecution.
As ICHR President Ardeshir Zarezadeh states:
“The dictators of our time are united in their repression. They cooperate, they learn from each other, and they silence their people with the same brutality. That is why we, the people of the free world, must also be united — to defend the oppressed, to stand with the victims, and to bring these criminals to justice.”
On this Human Rights Day, let us turn solidarity into action:
Human rights are universal, non-negotiable, and worth defending, today and every day.