Last checked: 16 October 2026. This is a reference guide. For dated news and figures, see our Iran tracker.
In brief: Iran is bound by the two core UN Covenants, which it ratified in 1975, and by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Disability Convention, the Genocide Convention and the Convention on Racial Discrimination. It is not a party to the Convention against Torture or the women’s rights convention (CEDAW). Two UN mechanisms report specifically on Iran: a Special Rapporteur and an independent Fact-Finding Mission.
When a UN expert or a rights group says Iran has breached international law, the claim rests on specific obligations. This guide sets out what those obligations are, where they come from, and who monitors them. It does not repeat the current figures on executions, arrests and the press; those are kept up to date, with dates and sources, on our Iran page.
The treaties Iran has joined
All dates below come from the UN Treaty Collection and the treaty body database of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR ratification status for Iran).
| Treaty | Iran signed | Iran ratified or acceded |
|---|---|---|
| International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) | 4 Apr 1968 | 24 Jun 1975 |
| International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights | 4 Apr 1968 | 24 Jun 1975 |
| Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination | 8 Mar 1967 | 29 Aug 1968 |
| Convention on the Rights of the Child | 5 Sep 1991 | 13 Jul 1994 |
| Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities | — | 23 Oct 2009 (accession) |
| Genocide Convention | 8 Dec 1949 | 14 Aug 1956 |
Two points stand out. First, Iran ratified both Covenants before the 1979 revolution, and the Islamic Republic has remained bound by them; ratification binds the state, not a particular government. Second, Iran attached a broad reservation to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The UN Treaty Collection records it as reserving “the right not to apply any provisions or articles of the Convention that are incompatible with Islamic Laws and the international legislation in effect.” Several states parties, including Austria and Italy, formally objected to that reservation as too general; the objections are published on the same page.
The treaties Iran has not joined
The OHCHR database shows no signature or ratification by Iran of:
- the Convention against Torture;
- the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW);
- the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance;
- the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, which aims at abolishing the death penalty.
Iran has also not accepted the individual complaints procedures under the ICCPR, the Covenant on economic and social rights, or CEDAW, so people in Iran cannot take individual cases to those UN treaty committees.
Not being a party to the Convention against Torture does not leave torture unregulated. Article 7 of the ICCPR, which binds Iran, prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the prohibition is one of the rights that cannot be suspended in an emergency.
Iran signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on 31 December 2000 but has not ratified it. As a result, the ICC has no jurisdiction over crimes in Iran unless Iran accepts it or the UN Security Council refers the situation. Our guide ICC vs ICJ explains those routes.
What the treaties say on the issues in the news
The death penalty
The ICCPR does not ban the death penalty outright, but it restricts it tightly. Article 6 allows a death sentence, in countries that have not abolished it, “only for the most serious crimes”, and forbids it for crimes committed by people under 18. The Convention on the Rights of the Child repeats the ban for juvenile offenders in Article 37.
The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors the ICCPR, said in its General Comment No. 36 (2018) that “most serious crimes” must be read restrictively and refers to crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing. In the Committee’s reading, drug offences and offences without intentional killing do not qualify. This is why UN experts and rights groups describe many executions in Iran as unlawful under the Covenant, regardless of whether they follow Iranian law. Current execution counts and their sources are on our Iran page.
Fair trials and detention
Articles 9 and 14 of the ICCPR protect against arbitrary detention and guarantee a fair hearing, including access to a lawyer of one’s choosing, adequate time to prepare a defence, and the right not to be compelled to confess. Reports of forced confessions broadcast on television are usually assessed against these articles.
Expression, assembly and belief
Articles 18, 19, 21 and 22 of the ICCPR protect religion and belief, expression, peaceful assembly and association. Restrictions are allowed only if they are provided by law and necessary for listed purposes such as public order. Whether a measure is “necessary” is the question UN bodies examine when they review cases involving journalists, protesters and religious minorities.
Women and girls
Because Iran is not a party to CEDAW, claims about discrimination against women rest mainly on the non-discrimination and equality clauses of the two Covenants (Articles 2, 3 and 26 of the ICCPR, and Articles 2 and 3 of the economic and social rights Covenant) and on the Convention on the Rights of the Child for girls.
The UN mechanisms that report on Iran
The Special Rapporteur
The UN Human Rights Council re-established the mandate of a Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran on 24 March 2011 (resolution 16/9), after an earlier mandate under the former Commission on Human Rights ended in 2002. OHCHR states that Mai Sato was appointed on 12 July 2024 and took up the post on 1 August 2024, the fourth holder since 2011. The Rapporteur reports to both the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly.
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission
The Council created the Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran at a special session on 24 November 2022 (resolution S-35/1), during the nationwide protests that followed the death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022. According to OHCHR, the Council extended the Mission in April 2024 and again in April 2025, when it also expanded the mandate, and in January 2026 renewed it for two more years (resolution S-39/1). Its findings are investigative conclusions, not court judgments; our guide to atrocity crimes explains the difference.
Other UN channels
Iran’s record is also examined in the Universal Periodic Review, where every UN member is reviewed by its peers, and by the treaty committees for the Covenants and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Their reports, Iran’s replies and the committees’ concluding observations are published in the OHCHR database linked above.
The independent monitors
Most day-to-day information about rights in Iran comes from non-governmental monitors, many working from outside the country because of restrictions inside it. Each has a different focus and method:
- Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), based in Oslo, focuses on the death penalty and publishes only cases it says it has verified.
- HRANA, an activist-run news agency, publishes daily case reports across many issues.
- The Committee to Protect Journalists documents cases involving journalists and media.
- Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch publish investigations and legal assessments.
- The Center for Human Rights in Iran and Hengaw, which focuses on Kurdish regions, are among the advocacy and regional monitors.
Their counts often differ because they verify differently. We cite the source and date for every figure, and our guide How to evaluate human rights reports explains how to compare them.
Government responses
Iran’s government publishes its own replies to UN reports, and its submissions to treaty committees and the Universal Periodic Review appear in the OHCHR database. When the government responds publicly to a specific report we cover, we add the response, with its source, to the relevant entry on our Iran page.
A note on safety
People in Iran and in the diaspora, including in Massachusetts, can face pressure for speaking out. Do not share names, faces or locations of detainees or their families unless they or their representatives have made them public. Read our Contact page before sending us sensitive information.
Additional sources
- UN Treaty Collection, status of the Convention against Torture and status of CEDAW, which list all parties.
- UN Treaty Series, authentic text of the ICCPR (volume 999).
- IHRNGO, reports archive, including its annual reports on the death penalty.
- OHCHR, interactive dashboard of ratification status, for comparison with other countries.