SHARE: YouTube | X.com | Facebook
At the UN Human Rights Council, Iran called an urgent debate to condemn the U.S. & Israel for “targeting civilians.” China, Cuba, Russia, North Korea and Spain piled on. Then UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer took the floor to set the record straight.
Highlights from the UN Human Rights Council, March 27, 2026:
Venezuela: The Group of Friends in Defense of the United Nations Charter welcomes this initiative of Iran, China, and Cuba to hold an urgent debate. The United States and Israel must respect international humanitarian law.
Islamic Republic of Iran: Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School has not been the only casualty of American-Israeli atrocity crimes during the past 27 days of their illegal war. They are targeting civilians and civilian infrastructures. Their clear intent to commit genocide.
UN Human Rights Chief: U.S. and Israeli attacks have increasingly struck densely populated residential areas. Whatever differences countries have, we can all agree they will not be solved by killing school children.
Cuba: Schools are protected spaces, there’s no justification for bombing a school which is full of children. This is not collateral damage. This is a war crime.
Spain: The pupils and teachers of Minab School were also the victims of a breach of international law.
China: The most egregious violation of human rights and blatant contempt for International Humanitarian Law.
North Korea: The DPRK delegation condemns in the strongest tone the shameless rogue act of the U.S. and Israel.
Hillel Neuer, UN Watch: Mr. President, what happened at the Minab Girls School located next to an IRGC military base is a tragedy.
We welcome the U.S. decision to open an investigation by an officer independent of CENTCOM. Responsible democracies must hold themselves to account.
But let us be clear: If anything this incident was an exception that proves the rule. The United States has now conducted 10,000 strikes targeting IRGC weapons and military assets not civilians.
That’s how they destroyed vast amounts of IRGC missile, drone, and naval capabilities.
By contrast, from Dubai to Tel Aviv the Islamic Republic of Iran is deliberately targeting homes, playgrounds, and hospitals — not by accident, but by design. In Israel, the casualty rate from Iranian attacks is 100% civilian.
Distinguished Delegates, there is a clear difference between inadvertently killing civilians during war a tragedy that occurs in every conflict and targeting civilians as a policy. Those who blur this moral distinction betray the very meaning of humanitarian law.
Because those who target civilians have a name: Terrorists. That is why the EU officially designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guards by that name. Terrorists.
To the IRGC we say: You do not represent the Iranian people. No — they consider you occupiers of their country.
History’s verdict is already written for those who murder thousands of their own people, and who target hospitals and playgrounds and call it “resistance.”
The IRGC has chosen the path of shame. I urge the civilized world: Choose the path of honor. Stand with the Iranian people.
