The Human Rights Council generated considerable disapproval on Wednesday after announcing that two of the seven experts chosen for its advisory committee originated from Iran and China.
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, communicated to Digital, “The U.N. appointed Beijing’s and Tehran’s loyal representatives as ‘human rights experts’—without a vote, without any apparent compunction. These governments persecute minorities, imprison anyone who speaks freely, and govern through intimidation and censorship.”
Neuer further noted, “The committee that once drafted its foundational document has now been taken over by those who embody racism, repression, and the suppression of truth. This constitutes an inversion of human rights—and a blemish on the United Nations itself.”
Spokespeople for both the United Nations Secretary General and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights did not immediately reply to Digital’s press inquiries.
In February, the United States withdrew from the council. President Donald Trump remarked at the time that, “They are going to ultimately lose their credibility, much like other organizations, and then they will amount to nothing.”
Orde Kittrie, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, informed Digital that “The UNHRC’s election of China’s Ren Yisheng and Iran’s Afsaneh Nadipour to its advisory committee is a shameful indicator of the degree to which the UNHRC has transformed into a mechanism not for advancing global human rights, but rather for diverting worldwide attention from the planet’s most severe human rights abusers.”
He continued, “Ren Yisheng is a career Chinese diplomat who has distinguished himself as a defender of China’s egregious human rights violations, including those against the people of Xinjiang and Tibet. The respected Freedom House rates China as possessing among the lowest scores globally for political rights and civil liberties. One only needs to consult the U.S. State Department’s 2024 human rights report on China to grasp that appointing a Chinese official to a human rights advisory committee is comparable to placing a wolf in charge of a hen house.”
According to Kittrie, “The report begins by stating that ‘genocide and crimes against humanity transpired during the year in China against and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.’”
Lawdan Bazargan, a prominent Iranian-American human rights activist who was imprisoned in Tehran’s infamous Evin penitentiary for political dissent, posted on X
Iran’s representative is described as “a long-term representative of the Islamic Republic to the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee. Nadipour is no defender of rights: During a particular period, she dismissed global support for Iranian women as ‘politically motivated,’ aligning herself with the regime’s crackdown.”
Bazargan added, “As Iran’s ambassador in Denmark, her embassy pressured Iranian women to accept cleric-imposed divorce terms, even threatening the loss of child custody. She has served a regime that mandates hijab, permits child marriage, and incarcerates women’s rights activists.”
The U.S. government, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has classified the Islamic Republic of Iran as a leading state-sponsor of terrorism and has issued extensive reports detailing widespread human rights violations within the nation.
Digital sought comments from Iran’s U.N. mission and the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C.