UN watchdog slams potential election of Iran to panel with human rights sway: 'Lunatics running the asylum'

Iran 's possible election to a major United Nations (U.N.) committee with influence on the shaping of policy concerning human rights, women's rights, and counterterrorism is "Orwellian," the head of a U.N. watchdog group says.

In November, the U.N.

General Assembly is slated to vote on whether to admit Iran to the Committee for Programme and Coordination, a 34-member body whose member states serve three-year terms.

The upcoming vote is widely expected to pass as a formality.

The committee doesn't draft human rights treaties or issue condemnations of human rights abuses, but plays an influential administrative role in how human rights initiatives are executed across the U.N. system.

The U.N.

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) nominated Iran in April despite Tehran’s documented history of systematic human rights abuses, strict crackdowns on women’s rights, mass surveillance and lethal force against political dissenters.

IRAN TO EXECUTE FIRST FEMALE PROTESTER TIED TO ANTI-REGIME UNREST Global bodies also consider Tehran a leading state sponsor of terrorism that funds proxy militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

In addition, Tehran has attacked neighboring Gulf states in recent months amid a war with the United States.

"It's the last government in the world that should have any influence," Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch, told Fox News Digital.

"Sadly, at the United Nations today — an organization founded after World War II out of great idealism to bring international peace — it is a case of the lunatics running the asylum," Neuer added.

"You have the Islamic Republic of Iran, a regime that beats, blinds, tortures, rapes, and imprisons women for standing up for their rights or showing a few strands of hair." ISRAEL ACCUSES UN OF PLACING IT ON SAME SEXUAL VIOLENCE BLACKLIST AS HAMAS TERRORISTS, SEVERS TIES Fox News Digital reached out to the Iranian Permanent Mission to the U.N. for comment.

Iran’s appointment would not be unprecedented.

The U.N.