{"id":57800,"date":"2026-07-28T03:38:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/57800\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T03:38:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:38:28","slug":"us-and-france-clash-over-human-rights-at-un-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/57800\/","title":{"rendered":"US and France clash over human rights at UN meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 U.S. diplomats walked out as their French counterparts were speaking at the United Nations on Monday after America\u2019s close European ally<\/a> criticized the Trump administration\u2019s human rights record.<\/p>\n

The surprise move during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine followed U.S. opposition to giving U.N. human rights chief Volker T\u00fcrk<\/a> another four-year term. The reappointment on Friday got overwhelming support, including from France.<\/p>\n

The U.S. walkout reflects not only the more strained relations<\/a> between President Donald Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, but also wider tensions between the U.S. and Europe<\/a>. These include questions over Trump\u2019s commitment to NATO<\/a>, possible changes to U.S. troop deployments in Europe<\/a>, and Trump\u2019s desire to control Greenland,<\/a> which belongs to NATO member Denmark.<\/p>\n

Trump has complained that Europeans<\/a>, who weren\u2019t consulted, did not help the U.S. during the Iran war. Amid the tensions, Macron has taken a lead in trying to build up Europe\u2019s military and ensure a nuclear umbrella<\/a> as one of the continent\u2019s two nuclear powers, along with Britain.<\/p>\n

After Monday\u2019s brief walkout, deputy U.S. ambassador Dan Negrea accused France of feigning \u201cmoral outrage\u201d and pretending to lecture the world about every topic, including human rights.<\/p>\n

The United States has stood by France in every conflict where its \u201cfreedom has been imperiled\u201d and tolerated its grandstanding \u201cout of a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect,\u201d he said, but no more.<\/p>\n

What sparked the walkout was a social media post Friday from France\u2019s U.N. Mission in Geneva criticizing U.S. opposition to a second term for the U.N. rights chief. The General Assembly voted 144-10 with 13 abstentions in support of T\u00fcrk, with the U.S. among the \u201cno\u201d votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore. Today, it stands alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali & Russia, isolated. And the world no longer listens to it,\u201d the French Mission tweeted.<\/p>\n

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., in responding on X, accused France of coddling \u201dsome of the worst human rights abusers\u201d and voting \u201cfor someone who has been lecturing, free, sovereign democracies like the United States, the UK, and Israel, while cozying up to the world\u2019s worst oppressors.\u201d<\/p>\n

T\u00fcrk\u2019s job as the U.N. rights chief, by its nature, is tricky: It requires speaking out against rights violations by the governments of the countries that make up the membership of the world body.<\/p>\n

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For instance, T\u00fcrk has sharply criticized Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion of Ukraine<\/a> and Israel\u2019s war in Gaza as well as having urged a \u201cmassive rethink\u201d of U.S. immigration policy<\/a> before the World Cup, citing issues around \u201cracial profiling, surveillance and immigration enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s meeting, Negrea drilled in on France.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I remind them that it is the United States that remains the beacon of liberty for the world,\u201d he said. \u201cAs such, we will not be affording them the benefit of listening to their politicized drivel until they renounce their condescending and disrespectful rhetoric and behave in a manner commensurate with their seat on this council.\u201d<\/p>\n

France\u2019s U.N. Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont never mentioned the walkout when asked to take the floor at the end of the council meeting to respond.<\/p>\n

Instead, he noted that France \u2014 which helped the United States gain its independence \u2014 took part in the July 4 celebration of America\u2019s 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United Nations was created with the goal of working towards international peace and security, human rights and development,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of that forms the spirit in which France works within the United Nations \u2026 to preserve this institution, its independence, its ability to act in service of the charter and act to serve human rights and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 U.S. diplomats walked out as their French counterparts were speaking at the United Nations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36295,195,36,73,5,83,13101,923,309,36293,36292,348,346,452,187,16827,36294,351,90],"class_list":["post-57800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-dan-negrea","tag-donald-trump","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-general-news","tag-geneva","tag-human-rights","tag-iran-war","tag-jerome-bonnafont","tag-mike-waltz","tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organization","tag-politics","tag-united-nations","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-volker-trk","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}