Hillel Neuer’s address to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Special Session on Iran, January 23, 2026:
Mr. President,
Doctors in Iran estimate 20,000 protesters killed; and 330,000 injured. These are numbers that defy comprehension. These are crimes against humanity.
So today’s session is welcome. But let’s be honest: it is too little, and too late.
The Iranian people have a right to know: Why, for over three weeks, did this Council say nothing?
We ask the 87 UN rights experts, the world’s “early warning mechanism.” For over two weeks, why were you silent? Only on January 13th was there a statement. And out of 87, only five of you signed it.
Day after day, we pleaded for action. Five days into the repression, after killings of protesters, I asked Agnes Callamard, the former UN Rapporteur who now heads Amnesty International: Why are you silent?
In January 2020, when the US eliminated IRGC terror chief Qassem Soleimani, she rushed within hours to condemn it. Why no urgency when innocent Iranian protesters are massacred?
And beyond this room, we ask the media, Hollywood celebrities, campus protesters — those who know how to mobilize world opinion — why are you silent?
The answer is uncomfortable but clear. The Iran protest movement shatters a cherished narrative. A people rising against Islamist tyranny does not fit the ideology—and so it is ignored.
To all of you, we say: The cost of your silence was Iranian lives.
It is time to choose: do everything to protect the people of Iran—or your failed worldview.
History is watching.
