What is Iran Human Rights?: Iran Human Rights (IHR/IHRNGO) is a Norwegian NGO founded in Oslo in 2007 by Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. It monitors and documents human rights abuses in Iran, specialising in execution statistics. Its annual reports are used by the UN, Amnesty International, and EU sanctions bodies as primary sources.Source: IHR
Did Iran execute political prisoners during the 2026 war?: Iran Human Rights warned that wartime conditions were being used to accelerate political executions. In March 2026, three Young men were publicly hanged in Qom on 'waging war against God' charges; one was 19 and had been sentenced fewer than three weeks after arrest.Source: IHR
Who founded Iran Human Rights?: IHR was founded in 2007 by Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, an Iranian-Norwegian physician based in Oslo. He serves as its spokesperson and director and is the primary source cited in international media reports on Iranian executions.Source: IHR
How does Iran Human Rights compare to Hengaw?: Both are Norway-based NGOs monitoring human rights abuses in Iran. IHR covers the whole country and specialises in execution statistics at national level. Hengaw focuses specifically on Kurdish-majority provinces and publishes detailed casualty and detention reports for those regions. Their datasets are frequently cross-referenced.Source: IHR / Hengaw
Is Iran Human Rights credible?: IHR is cited as a primary source by the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Amnesty International, and EU sanctions bodies. Tehran rejects its data as fabricated but has never publicly disputed a specific case record on its methodology. Independent assessments consistently find its execution figures conservative rather than inflated.Source: IHR

Background

Iran Human Rights (IHR, also known as IHRNGO) is a Norwegian-registered NGO founded in 2007 by physician Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, headquartered in Oslo. It is the leading independent source for execution statistics inside Iran, maintaining networks of lawyers, families, and witnesses to verify individual cases. The UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Amnesty International, and EU sanctions bodies rely on its annual reports as primary evidentiary material.

In the 2026 conflict, IHR issued warnings that wartime conditions were being exploited to accelerate political executions. In March 2026, three Young men were publicly hanged in Qom on 'waging war against God' charges; Saleh Mohammadi was 19 and had been sentenced fewer than three weeks after arrest. IHR also warned of mass executions following the NOPO seizure of Evin Prison.

The pattern IHR identifies is historically consistent: its archives document the 1988 mass killings of political prisoners carried out under cover of the Iran-Iraq War. Its data fills a structural gap, as the UN Rapporteur has been denied access to Iran since 2005. Tehran dismisses IHR as a foreign-backed hostile entity, yet has never publicly disputed a specific case record on its merits.

Source Material

Iran Human Rights — Official Website Iran Human Rights — Wikipedia UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Reuters coverage: Iran executions Amnesty International — Iran country page Iran executions hit highest level in 15 years in 2023, rights group says

How the World Sees Them

United States

US State Department human rights reports on Iran draw directly on IHR documentation, particularly execution counts and political prisoner conditions. The Trump administration's military pressure on Tehran has sat alongside a muted public response to the execution surge IHR is reporting.

European Union

The EU has cited IHR execution figures in multiple rounds of Iran sanctions, treating its reports as functionally equivalent to official statistics. The 2026 conflict complicates that position: sanctions over executions continue while EU governments simultaneously pursue ceasefire diplomacy.

United Nations

The UN Special Rapporteur on Iran has relied on IHR data since the organisation's founding, citing it in annual reports to the Human Rights Council. Denied access to Iran since 2005, the Rapporteur depends on IHR's on-the-ground networks as irreplaceable evidence for accountability.

Iranian government

Tehran characterises IHR as a foreign intelligence asset and dismisses its data as fabricated, never disputing a specific case on the merits. The 2026 Qom hangings and Evin seizure are precisely what IHR warned of; the government has offered no public accounting.