Gina Romero, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, announced that on Tuesday, 13 October 2026 she will join the hunger strike of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign in solidarity with prisoners in Iran. In messages on the social network X, she called for an end to executions and for independent monitoring of the situation of prisoners who are at risk of execution.
According to Iran International, Romero wrote that the Islamic Republic uses the death penalty against those who have exercised their right to assemble, to associate, to express themselves and their political rights. She recalled that thousands of protesters were killed in the January 2026 uprising and that at least 46 protesters have been executed since March, a figure that, in her words, is the highest number of political executions in nearly 40 years. Addressing the prisoners, Romero wrote that she joins them from outside the prison, and she also urged others to join the strike.
Names of young people executed or at risk of execution
In her message, the UN rapporteur named a number of young people who have been executed or are at risk of execution, among them 24-year-old Alireza Sepahi, 21-year-old Alireza Raisi, 21-year-old Ali Hemmati, Majid Nikandish, Mehdi Khanaki, Mohammadjavad Vafaei Sani, a former boxing champion, Shervin Bagherian, and two brothers named Hamidreza and Abdolreza Fathi. The case of Alireza Sepahi and his wife, Mahshad Keshani, who was put under interrogation pressure to deny their marriage, is one of the emblematic cases of this period.
Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, reposted Romero’s message and called it important.
A UN special rapporteur is joining the weekly hunger strike of Iran’s prisoners in protest at the wave of political executions.
Background of the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign
The “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign began in February 2024 with a weekly hunger strike by a number of political prisoners in Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj and spread to other prisons. According to IranWire, in the campaign’s 141st week, prisoners in 66 prisons across the country went on hunger strike. According to the campaign, about 200 political and ideological prisoners, including a large number of those detained in the January uprising, have been sentenced to death.
According to Iran International, at least 70 political prisoners have been executed between 7 January and 5 October 2026, 35 of them in cases linked to the January uprising and 12 of them executed in Isfahan Central Prison. HRANA had earlier announced that the Islamic Republic has executed at least 2,003 people in the past year, the highest figure in a decade.
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