On Wednesday, the UN’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council nominated the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination, which meets next month to shape policy on women’s rights, human rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention. ECOSOC’s nomination is effectively decisive, as the UN General Assembly customarily rubber-stamps such nominations without a vote.

In addition, ECOSOC by acclamation elected China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan to the influential Committee on NGOs, which oversees the work, accreditation and UN access of thousands of human rights and civil society groups that enjoy consulative status at the world body.

The United States was the only ECOSOC member to object, saying that Iran, Cuba and Nicaragua were “unfit.”

UN Watch today called on all democratic ECOSOC member states — Canada, France, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, the UK, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, and Finland — to explain why they joined in the election of serial abusers of human rights to key UN bodies that oversee human rights.

“Appointing China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia to oversee the work of human rights activists is like putting Al Capone in charge of fighting organized crime,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “It’s truly indefensible, and puts lives at risk.”

“As an organization accredited with special NGO consultative status at the United Nations, and which regularly gives a platform to dissidents from China, Cuba, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Nicaragua, we are gravely concerned that brutal dictatorships were elected to oversee our work and credentials — and it is scandalous that Western democracies put them there.”

“This means dictatorships will have a majority on the committee in order to deny United Nations accreditation to independent organizations that call out their human rights violations, and to accredit more fake front groups created by the regimes,” Neuer said.

“It harms the ability of pro-democracy dissidents to protect the most vulnerable victims and to advocate for human rights inside the United Nations.”

“By their cynical actions at the UN, major Western states have betrayed their own human rights principles, severely undermining the ruled-based international order that they claim to support.”

“We note that Western states did take action in recent years to stop Russia from getting elected to similar ECOSOC bodies, and we deeply regret that they failed to do the same now to stop the election of serial violators such as Iran, China, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan,” said Neuer.

Activists Issued Warning Before ECOSOC Election

Ahead of the election, 70 civil society and human rights groups warned that countries with poor records were at risk of being elected. The group International Service for Human Rights gave a failing grade to China, Cuba, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua and others. Yet their warning was ignored.

Key Documents and Sources

• Video showing ECOSOC’s nomination without objection of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k12/k12k3u0ohr?kalturaStartTime=4582
• UN document listing election by acclamation of China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan to the Committee on NGOs:
  https://press.un.org/en/2026/ecosoc7225.doc.htm
• UN website showing that ECOSOC members currently include Canada, France, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, the UK, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, and Finland: https://ecosoc.un.org/en/about-us/members
• U.S. statement dissociating itself from ECOSOC decisions, the only one of 54 ECOSOC members to do so: https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-position-on-the-ecosoc-election-of-the-committee-on-non-governmental-organizations-and-the-committee-on-program-and-coordination/

About UN Watch

United Nations Watch is a non-governmental organization based in Geneva whose mission is to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter. UN Watch holds the UN accountable to its founding principles by exposing hypocrisy, bias, and abuses. For more information, visit www.unwatch.org.

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“It’s like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch. “Electing repressive regimes like China, Russia and Turkey to a key UN council, which has the power to expel human rights groups from the UN, is a moral outrage, and shame on our democracies who were complicit.”

Neuer called on UN chief Antonio Guterres, UN rights chief Volker Türk and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to condemn the election of dictatorships to ECOSOC.

“Today’s election diminishes the credibility of the United Nations human rights system and casts a shadow upon the reputation of the organization as a whole,” Neuer said.

Russia won 115 votes, or 61% of those voting in the UN General Assembly ballot yesterday. Turkey won 174 votes (92%); China won 180 votes (95%); Chad won 183 votes (96%); Burundi won 184 votes (97%). Another 13 countries were also elected, including Lebanon, Mozambique and Norway.

UN Watch criticized the EU’s 27 member states, many of whom voted for China, Turkey, Burundi and Chad.

While the UN ballot was secret, the results show that only 9 of 189 UN states voting in the UN General Assembly declined to vote for China. “Consequently, at least 18 EU countries voted for Xi Jinping’s oppressive regime, which has a million Uighur Muslims locked up in camps.”

Likewise, only 15 countries declined to vote for Turkey, meaning at least 12 EU states voted for the Erdogan regime that has imprisoned opposition leaders and severely curtailed civil liberties. The EU even congratulated the Erdogan regime on its election.

A majority of at least 21 EU states voted for serial abusers Burundi and Chad.

ECOSOC is Key UN Organ Overseeing Human Rights Bodies

ECOSOC is the sole principal organ under the UN Charter mandated to adopt resolutions for the purpose of “promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”

The body accredits and oversees human rights groups at the UN, deciding which of them can participate at the UN Human Rights Council.

“This UN vote gives non-democracies malign influence at the world body. World leaders who failed to prevent it must now speak out for basic decency and morality in UN bodies,” said Neuer.

Importantly, ECOSOC decides which nations will sit on the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and the and the Executive Board of UN Women. As a result, it is more likely that misogynistic regimes like the Islamic Republic of Iran will be elected again to the UN’s top bodies for the empowerment of women and gender equality.

As ECOSOC member, China, Russia and Turkey will also be voting for who gets to sit on the UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the UN Commission for Social Development.

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UN Watch brought Nicaraguan opposition leader Félix Maradiaga to the floor of the U.N. Human Rights Council to confront Daniel Ortega and his oppressive regime.

Full Remarks:

Thank you, Mr. President,

I want to express gratitude for the work of the United Nations Group of Experts of Nicaragua. Their latest report is a milestone in exposing the full scale of repression.

For the first time, it is explicitly recognized that the Nicaraguan army played a direct role in the violent crackdown of the protests, engaging in extrajudicial executions, and providing intelligence and weapons to paramilitary groups.

This is a truth that other human rights organizations and I have denounced for years. At least 450 of us have been stripped of our nationality, but the real number of stateless Nicaraguans is far higher.

Thousands have been denied re-entry to our own country, and religious persecution also continues. Over 50% of the Catholic clergy has been forced into exile, and entire Protestant communities are also being harassed.

Ortega continues to shut down independent organizations while confiscating private properties.

The newly imposed constitution has dismantled the separation of powers, abolishing fundamental human rights protections and cementing a grotesque concentration of power in the so called “co-presidency”.

This Council must go beyond documentation. I respectfully urge this body to explore alternative international mechanisms to hold perpetrators accountable.

Full Spanish Translation:

Gracias, señor Presidente,

Quiero expresar mi gratitud por el trabajo del Grupo de Expertos de las Naciones Unidas sobre Nicaragua. Su último informe es un hito en la revelación de la magnitud total de la represión.

Por primera vez, se reconoce explícitamente que el Ejército de Nicaragua desempeñó un papel directo en la violenta represión de las protestas, participando en ejecuciones extrajudiciales y proporcionando inteligencia y armas a grupos paramilitares.

Esta es una verdad que otras organizaciones de derechos humanos y yo hemos denunciado durante años.

Al menos 450 de nosotros hemos sido despojados de nuestra nacionalidad, pero la cifra real de nicaragüenses apátridas es mucho mayor. A miles se les ha negado el reingreso a nuestro propio país.

La persecución religiosa continúa: más del 50% del clero católico ha sido forzado al exilio, y comunidades protestantes enteras están siendo hostigadas.

Ortega sigue cerrando organizaciones independientes mientras confisca propiedades privadas.

La recién impuesta constitución ha desmantelado la separación de poderes, aboliendo las protecciones fundamentales de los derechos humanos y consolidando una grotesca concentración de poder en la llamada “co-presidencia”.

Este Consejo debe ir más allá de la mera documentación. Insto respetuosamente a este órgano a explorar mecanismos internacionales alternativos para llevar a los perpetradores ante la justicia.

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Maradiaga will receive the 2023 Courage Award on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, at a ceremony to be attended by UN ambassadors, human rights activists and journalists from around world, at the 15th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.

Maradiaga was chosen for his “fearless stand for democracy against the brutal dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, daring to run for president despite the risks to his life and liberty,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of United Nations Watch, a co-organizer of the conference together with Human Rights Foundation, Cultura Democratica, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and more than 20 other human rights groups.

The Nicaraguan dissident previously addressed the Geneva Summit in 2019. After he was thrown in prison, his wife Berta Valle came to the 2022 Summit last year to appeal for his freedom.

Maradiaga Reacts to Winning Award

“The Geneva Summit has been instrumental in helping us speak out and denounce the human right abuses in Nicaragua and Latin America. During my imprisonment, the Geneva Summit provided a platform for my wife Berta, who was a relentless advocate for my freedom, and the freedom of the other political prisoners,” said Maradiaga.

“I cannot begin to tell you how proud I feel for receiving the award, which I will accept not only in the name of the civic resistance in Nicaragua, but also on behalf of human rights defenders around the world who are in arbitrary detention. This is something deeply personal to me,” he added.

“We are grateful that the Geneva Summit is playing a key role in highlighting the work of human right defenders on the ground.”

Previous laureates of the Courage Award include imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, former Saudi political prisoner Raif Badawi, and Mauritanian anti-slavery campaigner Biram Dah Abeid.

About the Geneva Summit

Maradiaga will join fellow champions of human rights from around the world at this year’s 15th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights, including dissidents, activists, victims, and relatives of political prisoners from North Korea, Afghanistan, Cuba, Russia, Venezuela, Turkey, China, Zimbabwe, Hong Kong and Nicaragua, who will testify on abuses in their countries.

The event draws a standing-room only audience of more than 800 participants, along with international coverage in major media including CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Le Monde and TIME magazine.

“It’s a focal point for dissidents worldwide,” said Neuer, “a one-stop opportunity to hear from frontline human rights advocates, many of whom have personally suffered brutal arrest, imprisonment and torture.”

The conference will be held ahead of the annual June session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Videos of past speaker testimonies are available at www.genevasummit.org.

Admission to this year’s May 17 Summit is free and open to the public, but registration is mandatory. The conference will also be available via live webcast.

For media inquiries and interviews with Geneva Summit speakers, please contact Pat at media[]genevasummit.org

Félix Maradiaga, one of the more than 200 political prisoners released in February by the Nicaraguan dictatorship, with his wife, Berta Valle, and their daughter, Alejandra, outside a hotel after arriving in the United States at nearby Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia, February 9, 2023 (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

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Today at the U.N. Human Rights Council, the regimes of Iran, Syria, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia told lies to shield their friend Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega. But then dissident Félix Maradiaga, who just spent 611 days as a political prisoner, took the floor to tell the truth. Friday March 3, 2023.

President HRC: I shall now proceed with the High Commissioner’s oral update and interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights in Nicaragua.

Iran: Mr. President, the Islamic Republic of Iran commends Nicaragua for its determination and positive steps to promote and protect the human rights of its people through strengthening its judicial and electoral system and safeguarding peace and its sovereignty. 

Ethiopia: The state of Eritrea commands the determination and ongoing effort of the government of Nicaragua to protect and promote the human rights of its people. 

Saudi Arabia: We thank the Government of Nicaragua for the efforts deployed to promote and protect human rights. 

Syrian Arab Republic: My country welcomes the efforts deployed by Nicaragua to promote human rights.

President HRC: Now we will continue with the video intervention by United Nations Watch.

Félix Maradiaga, UN Watch: My name is Felix Maradiaga. I am an academic and former presidential candidate from Nicaragua. Up until two weeks ago, I was a political prisoner for 611 days under inhumane conditions. I was put in that prison, together with many others due to our commitment to human rights and democracy.

By arresting us, Daniel Ortega has shown the world that he cannot win free elections if the opposition is allowed to participate.

This operation is not new. Since 2018, many before me have testified to his brutal repression of dissent. On June 2021, I was arbitrarily detained and later sentenced to 13 years in prison, violating all due process.

On February 9, 222 political prisoners were deported to the United States, and together with another 94 Nicaraguans, stripped from our nationality, which is an open violation of international human rights treaties.

39 political prisoners remain in Nicaragua, including Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez unlawfully sentenced to 26 years in prison for speaking truth to power in his role as a religious leader. These are the types of abuses that are unacceptable under the UN Charter.

I respectfully ask you, Mr. President, to take action for the release of the remaining prisoners. Help us end religious persecution in Nicaragua and the systematic human rights abuses.

Thank you.

Today at the U.N. Human Rights Council, the regimes of Iran, Syria, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia told lies to shield their friend Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega. But then dissident Félix @Maradiaga, who just spent 611 days as a political prisoner, took the floor to tell the truth. pic.twitter.com/zRwy8WNf7E

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) March 3, 2023

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• No Transparency: The appointment was treated as an internal recruitment process, without elements such as a public list of candidates and vision statements, as for the most recent Secretary-General appointment process. Transparency over such an important appointment would have helped to improve public perceptions of the High Commissioner’s office, strengthen Bachelet’s legitimacy and would be in line with the UN’s own best practices. Only one candidate, Nils Melzer, publicly declared his candidacy, and shared his vision for the role.

• Timing: The official process to find the next High Commissioner was triggered less than three months before the mandate begins. Bachelet will have the shortest preparation time in the role’s history.

• Bachelet should commit to stand for a single term only to avoid the distraction and pressures of possible re-selection, as stated by UNA-UK.

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The Committee AGAINST Non-Governmental Organizations

Iran’s Record on Human Rights NGOs
According to the most recent US State Department report on Iran:

• Iran’s new Political Crimes law restricts NGOs, with barriers to speech and advocacy by defining political crimes to include insult against the government and “the publication of lies.” The law also criminalizes political activism. Delineated acts are deemed “political crimes” if they “are committed with the intent of reforming the domestic or foreign policies of Iran”; acts intended to damage the “foundations of the regime” are deemed “national security crimes.”
• Human rights defender and journalist Narges Mohammadi was sentenced to 16 years in prison in May 2016 for “propaganda against the state,” “assembly and collusion against national security,” and “establishing the antisecurity and illegal ‘Step by Step to Stop the Death Penalty’ party.”
• The regime periodically imprisons political activist and lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and briefly suspended her law license due to her advocacy for prisoners of conscience.
• The government restricts the work of NGOs through harassment, arrests, online hacking, and monitoring of individual activists and organization workplaces.
• The government also routinely intimidates human rights activists by repeatedly summoning them in for questioning, and confiscating personal belongings such as cell phones, laptops and passports.
• Iran imprisons lawyers and others affiliated with the Defenders of Human Rights Center advocacy group.
• Human rights defenders who engage with the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran are subjected to reprisals.

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