UN Rights Official Urged to Reconsider Planned Visit to Iran

Rights activists and civil society groups are urging UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif to postpone her upcoming trip to Iran, saying the visit could be exploited by the Islamic Republic’s authorities.

In a joint letter addressed to Al-Nashif, 25 international organizations said that Al-Nashif’s visit, scheduled for February 3, would take place amid an “alarming surge” in executions following grossly unfair trials and a brutal crackdown on any form of dissent.

Embarking on this trip before the release of the UN’s independent Fact-Finding Mission’s initial report on atrocities committed by the Iranian government during the nationwide protests of 2022-2023, set to be presented in a few weeks, would jeopardize the mission’s mandate, according to the letter.

“The trip is poised to be shamelessly exploited as a propaganda ploy, a deceptive show of cooperation with the UN just before the release of the Fact-Finding Mission’s initial report. This comes even as the Iranian government has consistently refused to cooperate with the FFM from the very beginning,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, a signatory of the joint letter.

“The Islamic Republic is ready to cynically manipulate this UN official’s visit, using it as a tool to whitewash its abysmal human rights record,” he added.

An association fighting for truth and justice for the victims of the downing in 2020 of a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran issued a similar call for Al-Nashif not to travel to Iran, which it described as “a large hostage camp.”

“Your journey at this particular time could unintentionally help the Islamic Republic in its propaganda efforts,” the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims warned in an open letter.

Iranian rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi also wrote a letter to the UN official, urging her to cancel, or at least postpone, her visit to Iran “as a form of protest against the unlawful and increasing executions in the country.”

Human rights groups said that more than 700 people had been executed in Iran last year, with a marked increase in recent months.