US Delegation Withdraws from UN Security Council Meeting in Protest of French Criticism

The United States delegation walked out of a United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday when the French ambassador began his remarks, in protest against previous French statements that compared the United States to North Korea and Russia in the context of a vote on human rights.

Dan Negrea, the US Assistant Permanent Representative to the UN, said, “One member of this Council is feigning moral outrage and acting as if it is lecturing everyone on any issue, whether it concerns the conflict we are still discussing today (Ukraine) or issues of peace and security, such as human rights. For this reason, we walked out during France’s intervention.”

On Friday, the United States was among ten countries that voted in the General Assembly against renewing the mandate of Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, alongside North Korea, Russia, Nicaragua, and Mali.

Commenting on this, the French mission to the UN wrote on the X platform in English: “The United States was once a model to be followed in the field of human rights. That is no longer the case. Today, it finds itself isolated alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali, and Russia, and the world no longer listens to it.”