Even though speaking about any organization or position promoting human rights in Iran is more like a bitter joke, we will analyze here the new profile of the new head of the regime’s Human Rights Headquarters.

Kazem Gharibabadi, the Iranian government’s deputy for international affairs and human rights, while retaining his post has become the secretary of the Iran regime’s Human Rights Headquarters which is a subdirectory of the regime’s Supreme National Security Council.

Since 2018, he has been the representative of the Iranian government in Vienna and the permanent representative of the regime in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Gharibabadi wrote in a tweet: “My mission in Vienna will end on October 15 due to my new position in Tehran.”

Zabihollah Khodaian, the spokesman of the regime’s judiciary, said on October 16, 2021, that Kazem Gharibabadi has been appointed as the Deputy Minister of International Affairs and Human Rights of the regime’s Judiciary by Judiciary Chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, and has retained his position as Secretary of the Human Rights Headquarters of the Government of Iran.

Ali Bagheri Kani previously held this position.

It is worth mentioning that to change the government’s structure to the so-called ‘young Hezbollahi government’ which was announced by the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei years before and has not yet been fully executed, step by step in all positions of the government, Foreign Minister Amir Abdullahian has appointed Ali Bagheri Kani as Deputy Foreign Minister and negotiator of the regime’s Vienna nuclear talks.

Kazem Gharibabadi had previously been appointed as the Iranian government’s ambassador to the Netherlands and permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Records of Kazem Gharibabadi

Kazem Gharibabadi was born in 1974. His first political position was in 2009 when he was sent to India as the ambassador of the Iranian government. Under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Rouhani, he held positions to advance the regime’s policies. He was an adviser to Ahmadinejad’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, and was a member of the Iranian government’s nuclear-negotiating team under Ali Larijani.

Gharibabadi received his bachelor’s degree in political relations from the University of International Relations in 1996.

He holds a master’s degree in diplomacy and international organizations and a doctorate in public law from Allameh Tabatabai University. He is mentioned as the son-in-law of Mohammad Baqer Zolghadr, a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards and the current secretary of the Expediency Council of the Iranian government.

  • Acting Head of Asia-Pacific, General Department of International Affairs of the Government (1998)
  • Master of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1999 – 2003)
  • Director of Communications and International Affairs Abroad of IRIB (2003-2005)
  • Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on Nuclear Affairs (2005-2006)
  • Deputy Director-General of International Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006-2009)
  • Ambassador of the Government of Iran to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to International Organizations based in The Hague (2009-2013)
  • Deputy Minister of International Affairs and International Judicial Cooperation of the Human Rights Headquarters (2014-2018)
  • Secretary of the JCPOA Committee in the regime’s National Security Council (2014-2018)
  • Permanent Representative of the Government of Iran to the United Nations Office in Vienna and Iran’s Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (2017-2021)