Ahead of the 2024 UN General Assembly session, which began on September 24, pro-democracy Iranian diaspora groups, primarily from the Iranian American community, organized a series of week-long rallies outside the UN headquarters in New York. The protests aimed to draw attention to Iran’s deteriorating human rights situation and to urge the international community to take decisive action against the rising number of executions and ongoing abuses in the country.
Rally participants strongly criticized the UN for hosting Masoud Pezeshkian, the president of the Iranian regime, which has been condemned over 70 times by UN bodies for egregious human rights violations over the past four decades. His presence was particularly denounced as the number of executions in Iran has reached record highs since he took office last August. According to human rights organizations, at least 180 people have been executed in just over a month.
The protests reached their peak on September 24, as Pezeshkian prepared to address the Assembly. Thousands of demonstrators were recorded demanding the regime’s expulsion from the UN.
