Václav Havel would be appalled to see this honoring of a despotic regime. The Czech Republic’s Ambassador to the UN Václav Hálek personally appointed Iran to lead this human rights forum. Secretary-General António Guterres to cancel Iran’s appointment. Watch launched a petition calling for U.N. “The idea that they would be appointed to a human rights council chair is obscene,” he said. This is an abomination to appoint a regime that beats, blinds, brutalizes, rapes, tortures, and executes innocent people for the crime of protesting.” “This upcoming event won’t take place until November, so I thought other countries would submit and take some time, but it happened all so quickly,” Neuer said. Watch and other officials, she lost her bid to chair the forum. As a result of the investigation into her views and the calls by U.N. The candidate from Qatar was an individual by the name of Hend Al-Muftah, who was antisemitic, anti-gay, anti-western, and racist. Neuer mentioned that in September, the UNHRC appointed another candidate to chair a democracy forum, and the two candidates were from Qatar and the Bahamas. “Presumably, their practice is to go by regional rotation, which means it might have been the Asian Group’s turn, resulting in what might have been a behind-the-scenes agreement that no one would contest their decision to nominate Iran,” Neuer told The Foreign Desk. Neuer explained that there was only one candidate and referred to a letter by the Asian Group created two weeks ago, “nominating Iran to be the candidate.” The Asian Group includes countries like Lebanon, China, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, North Korea, and many others.

Watch explained that this “was not an election but an appointment by the President of the UNHRC, who is currently the ambassador of the Czech Republic, and he decided to make the appointment,” Neuer told The Foreign Desk. “We have very little information,” Neuer told The Foreign Desk. This year’s UNHRC Forum will focus on the “contribution of science, technology, and innovation to the promotion of human rights, including in the context of post-pandemic recovery.” In the second paragraph of his letter, Balek said he had the “pleasure” of informing the council of his decision to appoint Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Bahreini, to chair the 2023 Social Forum held in early November. Watch, UNHRC president Balek addressed the council, stating that he had the honor of referring to the HRC “Social Forum” resolution, going on to say that he invited regional groups to “submit nominations of the candidates for the Chair-Rapporteur of the 2023 Social Forum.” In a letter now published online by Hillel Neuer, an international human rights lawyer and executive director of U.N. where delegates, businesses, human rights organizations, civil society, law firms, investors, trade unions, academics, and media meet to discuss the state of human rights in the world and how countries can work together to improve them. The forum is an annual event hosted by the U.N. On Wednesday, following several days of brutal mass executions in Iran, the Czech Republic’s Ambassador to the United Nations and President of the U.N.’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Vaclav Balek, announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran was appointed Chair of the U.N.

Foreign news desk