The government of Pedro Sánchez supports including Iran in an important UN committee that will define policies on women

The government of Pedro Sánchez continues to do favors for the Islamist dictatorship of Iran, favors that are becoming increasingly scandalous.

Iran launches attack missiles bearing the image of Pedro Sánchez as a thank you
Sánchez accepted human rights advice from the Iranian dictatorship that kills protesters

Yesterday, the Geneva-based independent NGO UN Watch, which monitors the activities of the United Nations, denounced Spain and other Western countries for supporting Iran's inclusion on the UN Programme and Coordination Committee. In a statement released this Friday, UN Watch said it "called on Canada, France, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, the UK, and other democracies to explain why they joined in the election of serial abusers of human rights to key UN bodies that oversee human rights."

The Iranian dictatorship will be on a committee that defines policies on women's rights

UN Watch has specifically denounced that 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." It so happens that in 2026, Spain holds the vice-presidency of ECOSOC, with Nepal holding the presidency of that council. The ECOSOC is one of the six principal organs of the UN. It was established in 1945 and its mission is to coordinate the economic, social and environmental work of that international organization.

Iranian women suffer severe legal discrimination at the hands of a misogynistic dictatorship that imposes Islamic law with the utmost rigor, including the obligation to cover their heads with a veil. Refusing this garment has led to women being imprisoned. In 2022, this serious discrimination gained global attention when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died after being arrested and tortured for not wearing a veil. At the beginning of this year, thousands of Iranians demonstrated to demand freedom and equality for women. The Islamist regime's response was to massacre more than 36,500 protesters. Now that criminal regime will have the power to define policies on women's rights and human rights at the UN.

Five other dictatorships will monitor human rights groups' access to the UN

UN Watch also denounced that "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”."

"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," Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, stated, adding: "It’s truly indefensible, and puts lives at risk."

70 organizations warned the UN of this risk: they were ignored

Neuer outlined the situation facing organizations like the one he leads: "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 denounced. "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."

UN Watch has noted that prior to 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."

Sánchez's government has already accepted advice from Iran on human rights at the UN

The support of Pedro Sánchez's government for Iran's appointment to a UN committee that will define policies on women comes at a time when the Spanish government is severing diplomatic ties with Israel, but not with Iran and Russia, two dictatorships that have been attacking their neighboring countries for years and, in the case of the Iranian dictatorship, promoting Islamist terrorism on an international scale.

The good relationship between the Sánchez government, a coalition of socialists and communists, and the Tehran dictatorship is not something sudden: in 2020 the Sánchez government accepted human rights advice from the Iranian dictatorship at the UN. The favors the Spanish socialist leader did for the Iranian regime were met a few weeks ago with Iran launching attack missiles bearing Pedro Sánchez's image and a message of gratitude towards him.

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Photo: La Moncloa.