(Adnkronos) – The Islamic Republic of Iran has been elected vice-president of the United Nations Commission for Social Development. The election was approved without objection during a recent meeting of the commission at the UN headquarters in New York. Iranian representative Abbas Tajik will be one of the vice-presidents of the 65th session of the commission, which advises the United Nations on issues related to social development and in recent years has promoted progress in universal social protection, decent work, and international attention to groups at risk of exclusion, such as people with disabilities, the elderly, youth, and families. The appointment has sparked controversy due to Tehran’s policies towards women and the recent brutal crackdown on protests against the regime.
Human rights activists and political analysts have condemned the hypocrisy of the United Nations in its treatment of non-democratic regimes. And yesterday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was criticized for congratulating Iran on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz wrote on X: “Another reason why we are not members, nor do we participate, in this ridiculous ‘Commission for Social Development’.” Alireza Jafarzadeh, author of “The Iran Threat” and deputy director of the US office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, also criticized the election: “Having the Iranian regime lead a UN body tasked with promoting democracy, gender equality, tolerance, and non-violence is appalling, like a fox guarding the hen house.”
“The vast majority of the Iranian people demand regime change because the mullahs are the world’s leading human rights violators, misogynistic to the core, and massacre thousands of dissenting voices,” Jafarzadeh accused. “The Iranian regime must be subjected to intense investigations and accountability by all United Nations bodies for crimes against humanity and genocide, from the 1980s to the January 2026 uprisings. Decades of inaction by Western governments have strengthened the regime. This must end.”
It is a “mockery” to elect Iran to head a commission dedicated to democracy, women’s rights, and non-violence, denounced Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “This is a regime that brutalizes women for not covering their hair and that has just massacred tens of thousands of civilians in two days,” Neuer stated, adding that governments had the opportunity to block the appointment but chose not to act. “EU states know how to prevent abusive regimes from obtaining these seats – they did so in the recent past with Russia – but this time, with Iran, they chose silence and complicity,” he said.
Lisa Daftari, an Iranian analyst, stated that the image of Iran as a leader in a commission focused on social development and rights is deeply concerning: “For Iranian women who risk prison or worse just for removing their headscarves, seeing Tehran have a vice-president of a UN social development commission is like a slap in the face.”
