United Nations, July 28
Washington and Paris have clashed over the reelection of Volker Turk as the UN human Rights chief, and it boiled over in the Security Council with the US staging a dramatic walkout when France began to speak.
Dan Negrea, a senior US diplomat, accused France of “disingenuous grandstanding” on human rights after he walked out on Monday as France’s Permanent Representative Jerome Bonnafont began speaking during a discussion Ukraine.
The public spat between the two Western allies had its origin in the General Assembly vote giving Turk a second term as UN High Commissioner for Huran Rights on Friday when the US and Russia tried unsuccessfully to stop it and then voted against Turk’s reelection.
He won resoundingly for the term that starts in October with the votes of 144 countries, while ten voted against him and 13 abstained.
Even though Turk has criticised it, India voted for his re-election.
The walkout against an ally was unusual – probably unprecedented – and showed the depth of the rift emerging between US President Donald Trump and many of the US allies.
France earned the ire of Trump’s administration with a post on X by its UN mission in Geneva on Saturday needling Washington for aligning with Russia and North Korea against Turk.
From Geneva, where the UN human rights office is based, the French mission said, “The 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”.
US Permanent Representative Mike Waltz shot back on X: “France voted for someone who has been lecturing, free, sovereign democracies like the United States, the UK, and Israel, while cozying up to the world’s worst oppressors”.
“It is disappointing – though not surprising – that this is how France deflects on its shameful vote to coddle some of the worst human rights abusers”, he added.
Negrea said at the Security Council that the US will not be “listening to their politicised drivel until they renounce their condescending and disrespectful rhetoric and behave in a manner commensurate with their seat on this Council”.
He said France “will feign moral outrage and pretend to lecture the rest of us about every topic, whether it’s about the very conflict we’re discussing yet again today, or even those unrelated to international peace and security, like human rights”.
“That is why we walked out during France’s intervention”, he said.
Turk riled up the US and Russia by criticising them and their allies on human rights – as he has taken on most countries to various degrees.
After a long career in the UN human rights office and in the UN secretariat, he was elected to his first term as commissioner in 2022.
When the General Assembly met on Friday to vote on Turk’s re-election based on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ recommendation, US diplomat Jeffrey Bartos wanted the poll postponed because he said countries did not get enough notice about it.
The US lost the motion to postpone, getting only 27 votes, with 63 against and 47 abstentions.
Russia followed up with another motion to hold the election next year when there is a new secretary-general.
That was defeated by 71 votes to 19, with 52 abstentions.
India abstained on both.
Turk received backhanded endorsements from both the US and Russia who accused Turk of following double standards.
Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Chumakov said displaying “political bias”, Turk and his office “advance Western geopolitical interests under the pretext of promoting and protecting human rights”.
Bartos said Turk was condemning “free democracies including the United States, UK, France, Australia, Italy, and more than any other country, Israel”.
After Turk’s reelection, he said on X that Turk led the UN’s human rights office “to its deathbed”.
“Today’s vote kicked the bucket”, he said.
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