Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), in a message to a major rally by supporters of the Iranian Resistance outside the United Nations in New York on September 22, called for recognition of the Iranian people’s right to determine their own future and for democratic change in Iran. She criticized the international community for continued inaction toward human rights violations by the Iranian authorities and called for international accountability mechanisms to prosecute those responsible for crimes against humanity.
Mrs. Rajavi also urged the international community to recognize the rights of the Iranian Resistance Units and the National Liberation Army to confront the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Message to the rally of freedom-loving Iranians outside the United Nations in New York
“Iran's seat belongs to the people of Iran and to their legitimate resistance for peace, freedom, and a democratic republic”#FreeIran2026NYRally#UNGApic.twitter.com/toXKTcV6AT— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) September 22, 2026
The full text of Maryam Rajavi’s message is available below.
Maryam Rajavi: Iran’s Seat Belongs to the People of Iran and to Their Legitimate Resistance for Peace, Freedom, and a Democratic Republic
Fellow compatriots and supporters of the Resistance,
Distinguished friends and supporters of the Iranian people’s Resistance,
As you gather here before the United Nations, the voice of protest from Iran’s oppressed people is being heard.
That voice rejects the continued occupation of Iran’s seat by religious fascism, which is a continuation of the same mistake that, for decades, has ignored the Iranian people and Resistance.
The presence in this building of perpetrators of crimes against humanity and those responsible for genocide is a mockery of human rights, peace, and justice. Those whose hands are stained with the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Iran and across the region must be expelled from the United Nations.
Iran’s seat belongs to the people of Iran and to their legitimate Resistance for peace, freedom, and a democratic republic.
The time has come to listen to the voice of the Iranian people. A people who seek neither war nor dictatorship; a people who seek freedom and a democratic republic.
The clerical regime is the enemy of the Iranian people and a threat to regional and global peace and security. As long as this regime remains in power, repression, executions, terrorism, and warmongering will continue.
The solution is democratic change by the people of Iran and their organized Resistance.
That change is within reach.
The Powerful Message of the Iranian People
Today, our people have a powerful message for the world.
Their message is this: they will overthrow the religious fascism ruling Iran, no matter the price. This is the message of the Resistance Units.
It is the message of political prisoners who continue to stand firm in the regime’s torture chambers. It is the message of political prisoners sentenced to death.
From the courageous young woman Arghavan Fallahi, whose death sentence was once again upheld by this criminal regime, and who wrote from Evin Prison:
“We belong to Generation Z. We stand against dictatorship and dependence, against both the Shah and the Mullahs,” to Javad Vafaei Sani, the courageous athlete who has been imprisoned in Mashhad for seven years.
Yes, this is the message of those who, in recent months, laid down their lives for freedom.
It is the message of those who rose up in the successive uprisings of recent years.
And it is the message of an outraged nation moving toward an even greater uprising.
Maryam Rajavi stands behind a podium holding a portrait photograph of Arghavan Fallahi during a message addressed to a rally in New York. A lion-and-sun flag is visible beside the podium.
Message to the rally of freedom-loving Iranians outside the United Nations in New York in protest to the reception of the president of the regime built on executions and massacre
Today, here, and together with your demonstration, we call on the United Nations General Assembly,… pic.twitter.com/exniDQL5uX
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) September 22, 2026
Turning a Blind Eye to the Crimes of a Regime Built on Executions and Massacres
Your voices raised at this gathering outside the United Nations express a clear protest. A protest against the reception of the president of religious fascism at the United Nations General Assembly. He is the president of a regime built on executions and massacres.
Our message is simple: Why have you turned a blind eye to the crimes of this regime?
Did you not see the tears shed across Iran and around the world after the massacre of thousands of protesters last January?
Have you forgotten that this regime has been condemned 72 times by the United Nations General Assembly and other UN bodies for its human rights violations?
Why have you ignored the 2024 report of the UN Special Rapporteur, which states that the executions of the 1980s and the 1988 massacre constitute crimes against humanity and genocide?
Why have you disregarded Amnesty International’s recent report, which concludes that the authorities of the clerical regime committed crimes against humanity in 2022?
Why have you ignored the report issued just days ago by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, which described the killing of demonstrators in January 2026 as a crime against humanity?
Yes, this is a regime of executions and massacres:
More than 1,100 executions since the beginning of 2026;
More than 2,200 executions in 2025;
Dozens of political prisoners executed in recent months alone;
Extensive records of the killing of protesters during the January 2026 uprising, the 2022 nationwide uprising, the November 2019 uprising, and many other protests;
And the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988.
The policy of turning a blind eye to this regime’s crimes must not continue.
The Defining Role of the Iranian People and Their Resistance
Dear compatriots and distinguished friends,
We now stand before several profound lessons drawn from experience.
First, whenever the brutal violation of human rights in Iran is met with silence and inaction, this regime becomes emboldened in its pursuit of nuclear weapons and its warmongering across the region.
Another lesson is that the solution to the Iranian crisis is neither war nor foreign intervention. Rather, it is the people of Iran and their organized Resistance who possess the ability and the legitimacy to bring about great change in Iran.
A further lesson is that the root of the current crisis lies in the fact that major powers have ignored the Iranian people and their Resistance and have even assisted the regime in obstructing their path.
But the people of Iran, having risen up with unwavering determination, are moving toward a democratic republic. This is an unstoppable force. The people of Iran have rejected every form of dictatorship, whether religious or monarchical.
And as Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Iranian Resistance, has said:
“Our sixty-year struggle against both the Shah and the Mullahs, for freedom and independence, will continue until the victory of the democratic revolution.”
Today, here, and together with your demonstration, we call on the United Nations General Assembly, as the UN Special Rapporteur urged in 2024 and as Amnesty International has recently called for, to establish an international criminal justice mechanism so that those responsible for crimes against humanity in Iran may be brought to justice.
We call on the Security Council to refer the regime’s human rights violations to the International Criminal Court. And we call on all countries to prosecute the regime’s leaders under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
We call upon the international community to:
• Recognize the right of the Iranian people to overthrow this regime; and
• Recognize the rights of the Resistance Units and the National Liberation Army to fight against the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Long live freedom.
Long live the people of Iran
