Iran has been chosen as vice-chair of the United Nations Charter Committee—a body tasked with reviewing and strengthening the principles of the U.N. Charter—drawing criticism from Israel and renewed scrutiny of the organization’s selection processes.
The appointment was finalized during the committee’s opening meeting as part of its executive structure, via an agreed procedure and without a formal vote.
At a U.N. press briefing, Digital asked whether Iran’s track record aligns with the Charter’s values and whether would condemn the move.
“The selection of any member state to a body comes from voting by member states themselves,” Stéphane Dujarric, the secretary-general’s spokesperson, said. “So questions about who gets elected to which bodies are for member states to address. We expect every member state of this organization to uphold the Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, given that they themselves joined this ‘club’ that is the U.N.—and those are our founding documents, some of our most basic ones.”
When pressed on whether the secretary-general would condemn Iran’s election, the spokesperson added, “It is not for him to condemn the election of any member state to a body. He will—and has—condemned instances where member states, through their actions, he feels, violate the Charter or human rights.”
The Charter Committee operates under the U.N. Legal Committee and meets annually. Its mandate includes examining Charter-related issues and proposing ways to reinforce its implementation, though its work typically requires consensus among member states and rarely results in binding action.
Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, sharply criticized the move, linking it to longstanding concerns about the U.N.’s performance.
“The U.N. created a committee back in 1974 supposedly to ‘enhance the U.N.’s ability to achieve its purposes,’” Bayefsky said. “The trouble is that, ever since, the U.N. has been on a downward trajectory in actually fulfilling its primary purposes: maintaining international peace and security and promoting respect for fundamental human rights.”
“Given that Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, a country committed to the annihilation of the Jewish state, and responsible for the bloody repression of its own people, the U.N. appointment helps clarify that in our time, U.N. purposes are in fact opposed to peace, rights and human dignity.”
Danny Danon strongly criticized Iran’s appointment.
“This is a moral absurdity,” Danon said. “A regime that violates the basic principles of the U.N. cannot represent them.”
“A country that systematically breaches the U.N.’s basic principles cannot hold a leadership position focused on strengthening them. The U.N. cannot continue to grant legitimacy to regimes that violate the very principles of its own Charter.”
Diplomats say the committee has in recent years served as a forum for political disputes among member states, including criticism directed at Israel. Iran’s selection to a leadership role comes amid ongoing debate over how the U.N. balances representation among member states with concerns about and adherence to the organization’s founding principles.
The U.N. maintains that leadership positions across its committees are determined by member states, not the secretariat, and reflect internal diplomatic processes rather than an endorsement of any government’s policies or record.