Iran Blocks Israeli Human Rights Non-Profit From Receiving UN Status Because Members Not From "Palestine"

On February 1, 2017, Iran blocked an Israeli non-governmental organization that criticizes Palestinian Authority and Hamas human rights abuses from acquiring UN accreditation. Iran is one of only 19 states that are members of the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO Committee), which reviews and decides whether to recommend granting consultative status to NGOs.

NGOs seek UN accreditation because it normally permits NGOs to attend meetings, circulate documents, sometimes hold events inside the UN and even address UN sessions. However, undemocratic states - the ones that compose the majority of UN members - dominate the UN NGO committee and even include China, Russia, Sudan, and Venezuela. Their standard operating procedure is to defer applications session after session with inappropriate, specious or repetitive questions and demands of the NGO.

In the case of the "Jerusalem Institute of Justice," an Israeli NGO that has "drafted and disseminated extensive reports on the human rights abuses of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and the Hamas government in Gaza", Iran derailed the application by asking how the NGO could operate without having board members from "Palestine."

In the words of the Iranian representative:

"This organization, based on the response to Question 13, none of the board members are from Palestine, and the organization claims that it is focused on the human rights in Palestine. We would like to know how it does the job as none of the board members are from Palestine."