UN Watch Press Release
For Immediate Release
Geneva, February 11, 2026 — United Nations Watch today sent a formal letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres calling on him to immediately disinvite Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi from addressing the annual opening of the UN Human Rights Council on February 23, 2026, and to publicly release the full text of his reported congratulatory message to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution’s victory.
The letter, sent today, highlights the incompatibility of allowing a senior official of the Iranian regime—implicated in grave human rights violations, including crimes against humanity—to speak at the UN’s premier human rights body, and in the presence of Guterres, who will address the forum in Geneva on the same day. It also demands transparency regarding Guterres’ message, which Iranian state media reported today as extending “warmest congratulations” to the regime amid its ongoing repression.
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, stated: “It is an outrage that the UN Human Rights Council would provide a platform to Abbas Araghchi, a key figure in a regime accused of mass killings, torture, executions, and systematic oppression of its own people. The Secretary-General’s reported congratulations to this same regime on its so-called ‘Islamic Revolution’ anniversary—celebrating an ideology that has led to decades of atrocities—compounds the hypocrisy. The UN was founded to prevent horrors, not to honor those who commit them.”
Neuer added: “These diplomatic niceties become indefensible when extended to a murderous regime actively perpetrating crimes against humanity. We demand the full letter be released so the world can see exactly what the UN Secretary-General said to a regime responsible for the killing, raping, and murdering of Iranians in the name of its revolutionary ideology. If authentic, Guterres must explain how such a message advances peace, justice, or human rights.”
The letter to the UN chief warns that failure to disinvite Araghchi will compel the Geneva-based UN Watch to request Swiss authorities to pursue his arrest upon arrival in Geneva for alleged crimes against humanity, pursuant to Switzerland’s universal jurisdiction obligations under international law and the Rome Statute.
“UN Watch calls on the Secretary-General to act decisively to protect the integrity of the United Nations and stand with the victims of the Iranian regime’s abuses rather than platform its perpetrators.”
The full letter is available here. In addition to the letter, UN Watch launched a petition demanding that Araghchi be disinvited by the UN.
About United Nations Watch United Nations Watch is an independent non-governmental human rights organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, dedicated to monitoring UN compliance with the principles of its Charter. It is accredited as a non-governmental organization in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council.
BREAKING: U.N. list shows Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to address U.N. Human Rights Council with Antonio Guterres on Feb. 23.@antonioguterres, if you don't disinvite this mass murderer, we will be calling on Swiss police to have him arrested for crimes against humanity. pic.twitter.com/jOJr0CVnGW
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 11, 2026
