British parliamentarians, legal experts and members of the Anglo-Iranian community have urged the UK Government to place human rights, accountability and the Iranian people’s democratic aspirations at the centre of its policy towards Iran.
At a cross-party meeting in Parliament on 10 September, speakers warned that Iran’s worsening human-rights crisis requires urgent international action, particularly as executions and death sentences continue to be used to suppress political dissent.
Participants highlighted politically motivated executions and death sentences against protesters and members and supporters of the democratic Iranian opposition. They argued that the authorities are increasingly using capital punishment as an instrument of intimidation to discourage protests and prevent further nationwide uprisings.
The meeting called for immediate international action to protect political prisoners facing execution and warned against allowing atrocities comparable to the 1988 massacre of political prisoners to be repeated.
Speakers also argued that decades of experience have demonstrated the failure of both military confrontation and policies of appeasement to provide a sustainable solution to the Iranian crisis. Instead, they called for a new approach based on human rights, accountability and recognition of the Iranian people’s right to determine their own political future.
Addressing the meeting by video, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) for the transitional period, said the regime’s greatest challenge is an increasingly defiant younger generation demanding fundamental change.
She highlighted the severe conditions facing detained protesters and political prisoners, including overcrowding and inadequate access to food, medicine and medical treatment. She also pointed to the continuing “No to Executions” campaign inside Iranian prisons.
Rajavi called on Britain and the international community to make diplomatic and economic relations with Tehran conditional on an end to executions, pursue those responsible for the 1988 massacre and subsequent killings through international legal mechanisms, and ensure that future agreements with Iran include verifiable human-rights commitments.
Cross-party parliamentarians echoed calls for tougher action.
Bob Blackman MP warned against replacing the current theocracy with a return to hereditary monarchy, stressing that Iran’s future must be founded on popular sovereignty, pluralism and democratic accountability.
Baroness O’Loan called on Britain to support democratic change, advance international accountability and condition future relations with Tehran on an end to executions and torture and the release of political prisoners.
Jim Shannon MP, Sammy Wilson MP and Lord McCabe similarly emphasised the right of Iranians to determine their future and expressed support for an organised democratic alternative.
The parliamentary discussion took place against an increasingly alarming human-rights backdrop. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recently reported that since March 2026, 59 people have been executed in Iran on national-security-related charges—already exceeding the total recorded on such charges throughout 2025.
The central message from the meeting was clear: Iran’s future should not be determined by foreign war, appeasement or the restoration of a previous dictatorship. It must be determined by the Iranian people themselves.
Participants therefore urged the UK Government to adopt a principled policy that stands with Iranians seeking an end to executions, accountability for serious human-rights violations, and a peaceful transition towards a secular, democratic republic.