UNITED NATIONS: Iran’s election as vice-chairman of the United Nations Commission on Social Development has been rejected by human rights defenders and policy analysts, who have condemned the UN’s hypocrisy in its treatment of undemocratic regimes.
The leadership role was approved without objection at a committee meeting, where delegates adopted agenda items and organizational decisions by consensus.
The United Nations has faced continued criticism for its inaction in the face of the regime’s violent crackdown on protesters in December and January. On Wednesday, UN Secretary General António Guterres faced criticism for congratulating Iran on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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Pezeshkian accused the US of “grave treason” during the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, 2025 in New York City. (Jeenah Maan/Reuters)
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz criticized the development, writing on
Alireza Jafarzadeh, author of The Iran Threat and deputy director of the US office of Iran’s National Council of Resistance, also criticized the decision. “The fact that the Iranian regime is in charge of a UN body charged with promoting democracy, gender equality, tolerance and non-violence is abhorrent and like a fox guarding the hen house,” Jafarzadeh said. “The vast majority of the Iranian people are calling for regime change because the mullahs are the world’s biggest human rights abusers, misogynistic to the core, and they are slaughtering voices of dissent by the thousands.”
He argued that Iran should undergo scrutiny rather than institutional progress. “Instead, the Iranian regime must be subject to intensive investigation and accountability by all UN bodies for crimes against humanity and genocide, from the uprisings of the 1980s to January 2026,” Jafarzadeh said. “Decades of inaction by Western governments have emboldened the regime. This must stop now.”
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“By choosing Iran to help lead a commission dealing with democracy, women’s rights and non-violence, the UN is making a mockery of itself,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “This is a regime that brutalizes women for not covering their hair, and has slaughtered tens of thousands of its own citizens in two days.”
Neuer argued that governments had the option to block the appointment but chose not to act. “The EU states know how to prevent regimes from abusing these seats – they have done so in the recent past with Russia – but this time with Iran they opted for silence and complicity,” he said. “By rewarding the Mullahs immediately after their slaughter of innocents, the UN has now sent a very dangerous message to Tehran.”
Lisa Daftari, an Iranian analyst, said the view of Iran taking a leading role in a committee focused on social development and rights is deeply troubling.
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Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran on January 9, 2026. (MAHSA / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)
“For Iranian women who risk ending up in jail or worse just for removing their headscarves, it feels like a slap in the face to see Tehran become vice-chairman of a UN commission on social development.”
She added that broader patterns in UN votes and resolutions contribute to perceptions of bias.
“When the same UN system has passed over 170 resolutions against Israel in the last decade and only about 80 against all other countries combined, you don’t need a PhD to see that there is a bias problem,” Daftari said. “If the UN has passed well over a hundred anti-Israel resolutions in recent years, while administering a fraction of that number over the world’s worst dictatorships, that looks less like moral leadership and more like political theater.”
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Protesters burn statues of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally held in Solidarity with the Iranian Uprising, organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, in Whitehall in central London on January 11, 2026, to protest the Iranian regime’s crackdown on internet access and “recognize their right to self-defense against the forces of the regime.” (Carlos Jasso/AFP via Getty Images)
Daftari rejected that procedural nature of United Nations commissions and committees.
“Some diplomats will wave this away as a procedural formality, but at the UN nothing is ever purely symbolic,” she said. “The bottom line is that handing the gavel to the Iranian regime on ‘social development’ once again confirms that the country is biased and deeply hypocritical.”
