The decision to appoint the Iranian regime as the head of the UN Human Rights Council’s Social Forum has outraged Iranians across the world. The fact that a regime that has one of worst human rights records in the world would direct any human rights assembly, let alone one associated with the United Nations is despicable. And the Iranian people and their resistance movement are making sure that the irony and disgrace of this decision is made known.
On Friday, November 3, freedom-loving Iranians gathered in front of the UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland to voice their protest to this decision. The protesters stressed that Iranian regime leaders and officials must be tried for executing dissidents, killing protesters, torturing opposition members, and numerous other crimes against humanity.
At the same time, members of Resistance Units, a network of activists inside Iran supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), voiced their protest to the appointment of Iran’s regime at the head of UNHRC Social Forum.
In Tehran, the Resistance Units held placards with messages of protest. “Have some shame in face of the 1,500 martyrs of November [2019 protests] and 750 martyrs of the 2022 uprising,” one of the placards read, referring to the brutal killing of protesters in recent uprisings.
“Shame on those who forced Khamenei’s representative as the chair of the UNHRC Social forum and shame on those who accepted it,” another placard read.
Human rights experts, jurists, and even UN experts and authorities have called for an investigation into the Iranian regime’s human rights violation, including the 1988 massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners and the massacre of protesters in 2019 and 2022.
In Shiraz, a member of the Resistance Units said, “The appointment of the ambassador of Iran’s regime as the chair of the Social Forum of the UNHRC is a stain on the history of the UN and human rights.”
In Rasht, a member of the Resistance Units addressed UN authorities and said, “Shame on you for appointing criminals and executioners as the char of the UNHCR Social Forum.”
The appointment of Iran’s regime at the head of UNHRC Social Forum has also caused outrage among human rights activists and jurists. In an open letter, 180 NGOs, human rights advocates, judges, and Nobel laureates wrote, “Appointing the representative of such a regime as the Chair of the Human Rights Council’s Social Forum will be seen by the clerical regime as a green light for more torture and killing.”
Some have justified this disgraceful appointment as a rotational regional shift based on the United Nations’ procedures. But the people of Iran have made it clear that this is a shameful justification for a disgraceful decision, one that will only give the regime the green light to further instigate more human rights abuses.
This regime should not enjoy the privileges of the UN while it does not answer to any of the United Nations’ procedures and modus operandi.
