The situation at the United Nations took a surprising turn on Thursday when Iran, a nation known for its severe treatment of women and violent repression of civil dissent, was named vice-chair of the UN Commission on Social Development (CSocD), which focuses on women’s rights and democracy.
“Here’s yet another reason to steer clear of this absurd ‘Social Development Committee,’” Mike Walz, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, expressed on social media.
According to monitoring group UN Watch, Iran was elected to this position without any objections from other member states, despite its reputation as one of the most oppressive governments regarding the commission’s stated goals of promoting democracy, gender equality, and tolerance.
“Western democracies seem to have failed to prevent Iran’s election. Interestingly, they took action against Russia in similar situations,” UN Watch remarked.
“By allowing Iran to take a leadership role in a committee meant to uphold democracy and women’s rights, the United Nations is undermining its own credibility. The Iranian regime has a history of violence against women and has killed tens of thousands of its citizens in just a few days,” noted Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch.
Lisa Daftari, an analyst on Iranian issues, commented, “For Iranian women, who face imprisonment or worse for removing their headscarves, the news that the Iranian government has secured a vice-chair position at the UN feels like a slap in the face.”
Alireza Jafarzadeh, from Iran’s National Council of Resistance, stated, “It’s alarming to see the Iranian regime participating in a UN agency focused on promoting democracy and human rights, like a fox in charge of a henhouse.”
Jafarzadeh emphasized that most Iranians desire a regime change, pointing out that the government has a history of severe human rights abuses and misogyny.
Iran’s candidacy as vice-chair of the CSocD was announced by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Following significant public outcry, including a petition with over 100,000 signatures from UN Watch, he was removed from a speaking slot at the UN Human Rights Council meeting scheduled for February 23.
This incident with CSocD marks the second significant controversy involving Iran at the UN this week, particularly after Secretary-General António Guterres was reportedly congratulated on the anniversary of the revolution that established Iran’s current brutal regime.
Iranian media celebrated the country’s High Development Index (HDI) ranking from the UN’s 2025 Human Development Report as justification for Abbas Tajik’s appointment within the UN.
Iran’s HDI score has shifted only slightly from 0.780 to 0.779, placing it 75th among 193 nations in the ‘high human development’ category, with a reported change of 27.6 percent since 1990.
The CSocD was established by the UN in 1946 to address social development issues and work towards goals such as poverty eradication and social integration.
Meanwhile, the Iranian regime has apparently excelled in ensuring employment for gravediggers and morticians, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, which documented a death toll exceeding 7,000 from last month’s crackdown on protests. Contrary to the regime’s narrative, most victims were reportedly not killed by protestors.
The last major uprising in Iran took place in 2022, sparked by the death of a young Kurdish woman named Mahsa Amini. She was killed by the “morality police” over headscarf regulations, igniting widespread protests led by women, referred to as the Women, Lives and Freedom movement.
Human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, a Nobel laureate and prominent figure in the movement, was sentenced to an additional seven years in prison recently, facing abuse throughout her imprisonment in the infamous Evin Prison. In 2023, she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her relentless fight against the oppression of women in Iran.
