Excellencies,

Harm Reduction International, jointly with IDPC, Advocates for Human Rights, and Elementa, echo the concerns raised for the increasing number of executions in Iran; while also condemning the unlawful and unjustified attacks on the Iranian population.

In 2025, Iran remained one of the world’s top executioners, both overall and for drug offences. While the exact figure remains unknown because of lack of transparency by the government, we believe over 900 people were executed for drug offences in the country – the highest figure in at least 20 years.

Drug-related executions continued, in fact increased, even during protests, and amid escalating state violence and repression; with drug control being increasingly misused as a tool of state control that disproportionately harms the most vulnerable and marginalised groups both in society and in the drug market.

Against this backdrop, we are gravely concerned about the ongoing cooperation of UN agencies with antinarcotics control programmes in the country; raising a real risk of complicity in human rights violations.

We hope the Special Rapporteur will have the opportunity to further assess the compatibility of Iranian drug control with human rights, and we urge this Council and its Member States to ensure UN agencies promote, rather than obstruct, the implementation of rights and health-centred drug policies in the country.

Co-signed by:

International Drug Policy Consortium

Advocates for Human Rights

Elementa