It has been nearly two months since nationwide protests broke out across Iran on December 28, 2025. Days later, security forces carried out countrywide massacres of protesters and bystanders, killing thousands.

But while the nation remains in shock and grief following the massacres and families still try to search for loved ones, Iran’s authorities continue to terrorize the population, waging a brutal campaign of mass arbitrary detentions, torture, and enforced disappearances.

>> Read a new report on this wave of terror across Iran

Iran’s intelligence agencies and security forces have arrested and detained tens of thousands of people, including children, subjecting detainees to torture and other ill-treatment.

Those forcibly disappeared include individuals arrested and may include cases of people who participated in the protests but never returned home. 

Some families have received calls informing them that their loved ones had been killed but have not had the bodies of their loved ones returned or received any information about them despite repeated inquiries.

Meanwhile, fears of a wave of death sentences and arbitrary, summary, and secret executions are growing in light of official statements and the execution spree of recent years.

International scrutiny and criminal investigations of international crimes are necessary now. 

“Do not forget the detainees,” a prisoner said in a voice recording received by Human Rights Watch. “Be our voice, if you do not raise your voice, they will eliminate us all.”