USA27 July, 20262 min read
United States Walks Out of UN Security Council Meeting as France Condemns Human Rights Vote
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US delegation walked out of UN Security Council meeting during France's remarks. France compared US rights record to North Korea, provoking the walkout.
Walkout over human rights
The United States walked out of a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Monday as France’s ambassador spoke, escalating a public dispute between the longtime allies over human rights.
“The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore.”
The clash followed the United States opposing a second four-year term for UN human rights chief Volker Türk, whose reappointment won overwhelming support on Friday, including from France, after the General Assembly backed him by 144 votes to 10 with 13 abstentions.
France’s UN Mission in Geneva had posted on Friday that "The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore. Today, it stands alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali & Russia, isolated."
In response, US ambassador Mike Waltz accused France of coddling "some of the worst human rights abusers" and voting for someone he said was lecturing free democracies while cozying up to oppressors.
Negrea and Bonnafont trade
After the walkout, deputy US ambassador Dan Negrea told the council that France was showing "moral outrage" and trying to lecture the world on every issue, including human rights. Negrea said the United States had stood by France in every conflict where its "freedom has been imperiled" and had tolerated grandstanding "out of a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect," but that this would not continue.
France’s UN Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont did not refer to the walkout when he later took the floor, instead saying, "The United Nations was created with the goal of working towards international peace and security, human rights and development." Bonnafont framed France’s approach as preserving the UN’s independence and its ability to act in service of the charter, human rights and peace, while the US delegation treated France’s remarks as the immediate trigger for leaving the chamber.
What the dispute threatens
The episode tied the UN Security Council walkout to a broader rupture over Volker Türk, NATO and Europe’s security role, with the US and France clashing over Washington’s vote and France’s criticism of the Trump administration’s human rights record. The sources link the diplomatic confrontation to wider strain between the US and Europe over issues including President Donald Trump’s commitment to NATO, possible changes to US troop deployments in Europe, and Trump’s desire to control Greenland, which belongs to NATO member Denmark.
France’s UN Mission in Geneva had argued that the US stood "alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali & Russia, isolated" after the General Assembly vote, and the US delegation’s walkout was presented as a protest against that comparison. In the same dispute, the UN General Assembly vote that extended Türk’s mandate passed with 144 states in favour, 10 votes against and 13 abstentions, and the sources say the fight reflects deepening strains between the Trump administration and the United Nations.