75 Nobel laureates urge UN action to halt Iran’s wave of political executions

In a powerful joint statement addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, 75 Nobel Laureates from across the globe have expressed profound alarm over the “widespread, systematic, and ongoing violations of human rights” in Iran, particularly a fresh surge in executions targeting political prisoners and participants in the January 2026 nationwide protests

The signatories – including prominent figures such as President of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta (Peace 1996), physicists Pierre Agostini, Alain Aspect, and Barry Barish, economists Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom, and literature laureates Kazuo Ishiguro and Olga Tokarczuk – stress that fundamental rights to life, freedom of expression, fair trial, and freedom from torture are being systematically denied to the Iranian people.

Background: the January 2026 protests and brutal crackdown

The statement comes in the wake of massive anti-government protests that erupted in late December 2025 and peaked in January 2026, triggered by severe economic hardship, repression, and long-standing grievances against the theocratic regime. Demonstrations spread to dozens of cities and provinces, with protesters demanding fundamental change.

Iranian security forces responded with extreme violence. Independent estimates of the death toll during the crackdown vary widely but are devastating: human rights groups such as HRANA documented over 7,000 confirmed deaths (with thousands more under review), while some reports citing medical sources and local officials placed the figure as high as 30,000–36,500 in the worst days of repression, particularly around 8–9 January. The Iranian government officially reported around 3,117 deaths. Tens of thousands were arrested, with over 4,000 detained on security-related charges in the initial wave alone.

Since March 2026, authorities have intensified use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression. Human rights organisations report that at least 22–39 political prisoners – including many arrested during the January protests – have been executed in secretive trials marked by torture, forced confessions, and denial of due process. Executions have continued at a rapid pace, with specific cases involving protesters, dissidents, and individuals accused of links to opposition groups such as the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

Nobel laureates’ urgent calls

The laureates demand:

An immediate halt to all political executions.
The release of political prisoners and detained protesters.
Unrestricted access for international monitors to detention centres.
Democratic governments to make the abolition of the death penalty a core condition in all dealings with Iran.

They explicitly back the large-scale rally planned for 20 June 2026 in Paris – the “Day of Martyrs and Political Prisoners” – where over 100,000 Iranians and supporters are expected to gather to amplify these demands.

The statement also endorses the democratic vision outlined in Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan for a peaceful transition to popular sovereignty through a temporary government under the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), emphasising change without foreign military intervention or return to any form of dictatorship.

A remarkable show of global conscience

This broad coalition of 75 Nobel laureates – spanning peace, physics, chemistry, medicine, economics, and literature – underscores the gravity of the crisis. It follows earlier appeals, including one by 24 Olympians and previous statements by over 100 laureates on Iran’s human rights record.

As the signatories warn, international silence only emboldens further repression. With dozens more at risk of imminent execution, their unified voice adds significant moral weight to calls for urgent UN and international intervention to save lives and uphold universal human rights in Iran.

Caption: A person holds a portrait of the president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Maryam Rajavi, during a demonstration in support of the Iranian people under the message ‘United for a pluralistic and secular republic: Neither Shah nor Mullah’ organized by various associations supporting the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Paris, France, 7 March 2026. Iran officially confirmed on 01 March that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint US-Israeli military operation conducted on 28 February 2026. EPA/TERESA SUAREZ