GENEVA, April 10, 2026 \u2014\u00a0UN Watch, the independent Geneva-based non-governmental organization that monitors the United Nations, today 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.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the UN\u2019s 54-nation Economic and Social Council\u00a0nominated<\/a>\u00a0the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN\u2019s Committee for Program and Coordination, which\u00a0meets next month<\/a>\u00a0to shape policy on women\u2019s rights, human rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention. ECOSOC\u2019s nomination is effectively decisive, as the UN General Assembly customarily rubber-stamps such nominations without a vote.<\/p>\n In addition, ECOSOC by acclamation\u00a0elected<\/a>\u00a0China, 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.<\/p>\n The United States was the only ECOSOC member to object,\u00a0saying<\/a>\u00a0that Iran, Cuba and Nicaragua were \u201cunfit.\u201d<\/p>\n UN Watch today called on all democratic ECOSOC member states \u2014 Canada, France, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, the UK, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, and Finland \u2014 to explain why they joined in the election of serial abusers of human rights to key UN bodies that oversee human rights.<\/p>\n \u201cAppointing China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia to oversee the work of human rights activists is like putting Al Capone in charge of fighting organized crime,\u201d said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. \u201cIt\u2019s truly indefensible, and puts lives at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs an organization accredited with special NGO consultative status at the United Nations, and which regularly gives a platform<\/a> 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 \u2014 and it is scandalous that Western democracies put them there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis 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<\/a> created by the regimes,\u201d Neuer said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt harms the ability of pro-democracy dissidents to protect the most vulnerable victims and to advocate for human rights inside the United Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe note that Western states did take action<\/a> in recent years to stop Russia from getting elected to similar ECOSOC bodies, and we deeply regret that they failed to do the same now to stop the election of serial violators such as Iran, China, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan,\u201d said Neuer.<\/p>\n Activists Issued Warning Before ECOSOC Election<\/p>\n Ahead of the election, 70 civil society and human rights groups\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0that countries with poor records were at risk of being elected. The group International Service for Human Rights gave a failing grade to\u00a0China<\/a>,\u00a0Cuba<\/a>,\u00a0Sudan<\/a>,\u00a0Saudi Arabia<\/a>,\u00a0Nicaragua<\/a>\u00a0and others. Yet their warning was ignored.<\/p>\n Key Documents and Sources<\/p>\n Video showing ECOSOC\u2019s nomination without objection of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN\u2019s Committee for Program and Coordination: https:\/\/webtv.un.org\/en\/asset\/k12\/k12k3u0ohr?kalturaStartTime=4582<\/a>UN document listing election by acclamation of China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan to the Committee on NGOs: \u00a0<\/p>\n About UN Watch<\/p>\n United Nations Watch is a non-governmental organization based in Geneva whose mission is to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter. UN Watch holds the UN accountable to its founding principles by exposing hypocrisy, bias, and abuses. For more information, visit\u00a0www.unwatch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA, April 10, 2026 \u2014\u00a0UN Watch, the independent Geneva-based non-governmental organization that monitors the United Nations, today called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,292817,13833,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-600716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-pinned","11":"tag-press-release","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
https:\/\/press.un.org\/en\/2026\/ecosoc7225.doc.htm<\/a>UN website showing that ECOSOC members currently include Canada, France, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, the UK, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, and Finland: https:\/\/ecosoc.un.org\/en\/about-us\/members<\/a>U.S. statement dissociating itself from ECOSOC decisions, the only one of 54 ECOSOC members to do so: https:\/\/usun.usmission.gov\/explanation-of-position-on-the-ecosoc-election-of-the-committee-on-non-governmental-organizations-and-the-committee-on-program-and-coordination\/<\/a><\/p>\n