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Adam Zivo: Canada backs terrorist-state Iran reviewing UN programs to stop terrorism

The least Ottawa could is to stop treating the Islamic Republic as if it isn't a murderous regime

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If Canada truly cares about human rights, then why does it support Iran’s continued inclusion in prominent UN decisionmaking bodies? The Islamic Republic is a draconian regime that just murdered around 30,000 anti-government protesters this January, so shunning it within international fora is — to put things mildly — the bare minimum that Ottawa can do.

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A great case study here would be the UN Committee for Program and Coordination (CPC), which functionally acts as the institution’s “board of directors” by providing broad strategic oversight (e.g. evaluating existing programs and setting long term priorities and budgets).

Adam Zivo: Canada backs terrorist-state Iran reviewing UN programs to stop terrorism Back to video

The committee consists of 34 UN member states who are elected to three-year terms, with each region of the world being guaranteed a certain number of seats. While this body theoretically has the capacity to be highly influential, the political disagreements within its membership, coupled with the need for consensus-based decision-making, leaves it too paralyzed to do anything that isn’t milquetoast and inconsequential.

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While the committee may — like the UN as a whole —  be functionally useless, membership nonetheless carries some prestige and symbolic weight.

That’s why it’s dodgy that the Islamic Republic has sat on it for many years (having been elected in 2014, 2017, 2020 and 2023). Of course, there have been many other questionable committee members — with the current roster including Russia, Cuba and China — but liberal democracies have tolerated their presence with the understanding that multilateralism requires compromise and pragmatism.

But there are limits.

Iran’s CPC membership will be expiring this year, so, as usual, it is seeking reelection for another three-year term. This process will be primarily handled by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which centrally coordinates the UN’s work on economic, social and environmental issues.

Once a year, the ECOSOC’s 54 elected member states nominate a list of countries to join the CPC, who are then invariably confirmed by a series of rubber-stamped UN General Assembly votes.

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The ECOSOC always contains a stable faction of western liberal democracies, because, just like the CPC, its membership slots are divided into regional blocs (e.g. 14 members must be African). The current roster, for example, includes the United States, Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and — hold your applause — Canada.

So when CPC nominations came up for debate last Friday, how many of these democracies opposed the Islamic Republic’s reelection? Just one: the United States, which also objected to Cuba and Nicaragua’s nominations, calling them all “unfit.”

Everyone else voted for the Islamic Republic, effectively ensuring that Tehran will sit on the CPC for another three years, where it will oversee human rights programming.

Just next month, for example, the CPC will be reviewing UN programs related to gender equality, disarmament and terrorism prevention. As a member, the Islamic Republic will naturally provide input, even though it is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. Even though it enforces a gender apartheid where women must obtain their husband’s permission to work or travel. Satire isn’t dead, evidently.

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If these democracies came together and refused to support Iran’s nomination, that probably wouldn’t change the end result, as other geographic blocs would provide sufficient support. And as the CPC is a consensus-based system with 34 members, Iran will not be able to sabotage these initiatives — at least not substantially. We can expect just more of the status quo, especially because Iran has been a CPC member for over a decade already.

But that’s not the point here. What matters is taking a principled stance, which is something that should, in fact, be easier when concrete institutional impacts are negligible.

Western democracies are failing to shun the Islamic Republic within UN fora, even when the stakes are low. For all their bluster about human rights, these countries — Canada included — simply can’t be bothered to do the bare minimum. They refuse to deny the Islamic Republic institutional legitimacy, and make a mockery of the international system – and their own principles – by acceding to Iran’s oversight.

“But why does it matter now, when Iran has been in this dumb committee for ages?” some might wonder. Well, remember the rivers of blood staining Tehran’s streets three months ago? And the rooms full of Iranian body bags? Did the slaughter of tens of thousands of protesters mean something? Shouldn’t that have spurred some deviation from the status quo?

It is possible, if uncomfortable, to tolerate the Islamic Republic in normal times, but to do so now, so shortly after a peacetime massacre of historic dimensions, is unconscionable. This is not about protecting the UN’s credibility — because, speaking frankly, it has none. Rather, this is about asserting our own values.

The Canadian government claims to care about global justice, and has condemned the Islamic Republic’s massacres as morally repugnant, and recognizes the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. as a terrorist entity. Ottawa promised Iranian-Canadians that their tears, and record-breaking protests, did not go unnoticed. But how can anyone take this seriously when Canada lacks the modicum of integrity needed to shun the Mullahs from the world stage?

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