Your Excellency,
UN Secretary-General, Mr António Guterres,
On behalf of the International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights (IOPHR), I write to express our profound concern and unequivocal condemnation of the United Nations’ decision to appoint Mr Abbas Tajik of the Islamic Republic of Iran as Vice-Chair of the UN Commission for Social Development.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is not merely a state with an imperfect human rights record. It is a regime internationally recognised for systematic repression, state‑sponsored violence, political imprisonment, torture, and the execution of dissidents, including women, minorities, and peaceful protestors. It is responsible for exporting instability through armed proxies and terror-linked networks, threatening the security of the Middle East and beyond.
The UN’s decision to elevate or legitimise such a regime through official appointments represents a direct contradiction of the principles on which the United Nations was founded.
The appointment of Mr Tajik to a position of responsibility within the UN sends a devastating message to victims of human rights abuses, particularly to the people of Iran who have suffered under decades of oppression. It undermines the credibility of the United Nations as a defender of universal human rights and reinforces the perception that political convenience is being prioritised over moral responsibility.
As Vice-Chair, Mr Tajik would help shape the Commission’s agenda and recommendations on global social development, responsibilities fundamentally incompatible with the Islamic Republic’s record of systemic human rights abuses and its ongoing violations of the UN Charter.
We note the recent reports confirming that Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, has now been removed from the UN Council speakers list. IOPHR welcomes this decision as a necessary and appropriate step.
However, this development raises further questions: Does this removal indicate that the planned meeting between your office and representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran will now involve another official from the same regime? If so, how does the United Nations justify continuing high‑level diplomatic engagement with a government whose institutions are deeply intertwined with the IRGC and intelligence networks responsible for domestic repression and transnational intimidation?
The IRGC itself has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, Canada, and several other jurisdictions, and is sanctioned across Europe and Australia for its involvement in terrorism and human rights abuses. The Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry does not operate independently from this apparatus.
IOPHR calls upon the United Nations to:
- Immediately review and reverse the appointment of Mr Abbas Tajik, and ensure that no representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran is granted any position of responsibility within the United Nations, given the regime’s systematic violations of human rights and its non‑adherence to the principles of the UN Charter.
- Clarify whether any meeting with representatives of the Islamic Republic remains scheduled, and if so, provide a public justification for such engagement.
- Launch an urgent reform review of the UN appointment and membership process, to prevent regimes with documented crimes against humanity from being legitimised through UN structures.
- Prioritise engagement with Iranian civil society, victims of repression, and democratic opposition movements, rather than offering diplomatic privilege to the perpetrators.
The United Nations cannot claim to stand for human rights while simultaneously offering positions of responsibility and high‑level diplomatic engagements to a regime that actively violates the very foundations of the UN Charter.
IOPHR strongly condemns these actions and urges your office to take immediate corrective steps. The credibility of the United Nations depends upon its willingness to uphold justice not selectively, but universally.
We remain available for dialogue and would welcome an opportunity to present further evidence and documentation regarding the Islamic Republic’s continued abuses and destabilising activities.
Yours sincerely,
Mattie Heaven
Director
International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights (IOPHR)