At the UN, regimes like Cuba hijack the system to create frivolous mandates with “experts” whose sole purpose is to attack the West and legitimize regimes like China. These absurd taxpayer-funded mandates often make outrageous proposals-such as the recent call that could grant Iran a UN Security Council veto. Only UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer took the floor to fight back.
Transcript of the Video:
Hillel Neuer (UN Watch):
Are you proposing to give a UN veto to those who jail lawyers, journalists, human rights dissidents in Evin prison? The Islamic Republic of Iran speaks of “International Order” yet it is they who systematically destabilize the region.
Independent Expert:
Blatant violations of international legality, like the recent sanctions against the Special Rapporteur on Palestine by the US government, represent a direct attack on the dignity of the UN human rights system.
China:
President Xi has proposed a global governance initiative advocating a people-centered and more just and reasonable governance system in the world.
The State of Palestine:
We echo the expert’s call for democratizing global governance. The Security Council cannot remain frozen in a structure that denies permanent representation to the Muslim world.
Islamic Republic of Iran:
The Israeli regime constitutes the principal axis of evil. How can existing international legal mechanisms, particularly the International Court of Justice, be empowered to address systematic violations by the Israeli regime?
Hillel Neuer (UN Watch):
Mr. President, in today’s report the expert’s first recommendation is to give the Muslim world a permanent seat on the Security Council.
So we ask the expert: Will this include the Islamic Republic of Iran whom we just heard accusing others of aggression, instability, and constituting an axis of evil? The same government that beats and jails women for the crime of showing their hair?
The same government whose so-called “morality police” murdered Mahsa Amini, sparking the Women Life Freedom uprising that saw thousands arrested, hundreds killed and countless young women blinded or executed for demanding basic rights?
The same government that persecutes minorities: Baha’is, Christians, Sunnis, Kurds denying them freedom of worship, education, and employment?
We ask the expert: Are you proposing to give a UN veto to those who jail lawyers, journalists, human rights dissidents in Evin prison after sham trials?
A veto to those who expelled 700,000 Afghan refugees this year in flagrant violation of international law with families rounded up and beaten at the border?
To those who supply drones to kill civilians in Ukraine and arm Hamas and Hezbollah to export terror throughout the Middle East?
The Islamic Republic of Iran speaks of “international order” yet it is they who systematically destabilize the region, undermine the rule of law and peace, and trample on the rights of its own citizens.
Mr. President, Iran spoke about the ICJ, but the real question is this: When will UN institutions hold Tehran accountable for its brutal repression at home and its aggression abroad?
