By International Centre for Human Rights

There are moments in history when cruelty is no longer hidden when it becomes systematic, visible, and undeniable. Iran is living through such a moment.

Executions are not slowing. They are accelerating.

Even as conflict and global attention shift elsewhere, the machinery of death continues its work, methodically, quietly, and without remorse. Men and women are taken not for crimes of violence, but for the simple act of demanding dignity, of speaking, of existing beyond imposed limits.

This is not justice. This is not law. This is the calculated use of death as a tool of control. What makes this moment even more grave is not only the persistence of these acts, but the environment in which they continue.

A system that is responsible for widespread violations, killings, arbitrary detentions, torture, and repression remains engaged within global human rights structures.

Independent investigations and UN mechanisms have already pointed to patterns that may amount to crimes of the gravest nature, including unlawful killings and systemic abuse.

And yet, representatives linked to this same system are nominated to participate in, and even influence, international human rights bodies.

This is not neutrality.
This is not procedure.
This is a failure of moral clarity.

To grant legitimacy in the language of participation, while victims are still being buried, is to erode the very foundation of human rights itself. It sends a dangerous and irreversible message that accountability is optional, and that power can outweigh principle.

We reject that message.

We call on the United Nations and its member states to act with urgency and integrity:

  • To immediately suspend and review any nomination or appointment that grants legitimacy to representatives of systems credibly accused of serious human rights violations.
  • To uphold the credibility of international human rights institutions, ensuring they are not compromised by those they are meant to hold accountable.
  • To prioritize victims over procedure, and justice over political convenience.
  • And most importantly to stop executions in Iran.

The credibility of global human rights mechanisms is not abstract, it is measured in lives.

The world cannot claim to defend human rights while enabling those accused of violating them to shape the very institutions meant to uphold them. Past appointments of Iranian officials to UN human rights related roles have already been widely condemned as “absurd” and a moral failure.

This is not a political question. It is a question of principle. And principles mean nothing if they are not defended when it is difficult to do so.

The people of Iran are not asking for statements.
They are asking for consistency.
They are asking for courage.

And above all they are asking not to be forgotten while the world debates their fate.