America alone at UN: France brands the U.S. an outcast alongside North Korea

On Friday, the UN General Assembly voted 144 in favor, 10 against, and 13 abstaining to extend Volker Türk’s mandate as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for another four years, through October 2030. The overwhelming majority backed Secretary-General António Guterres’s proposal. Among the ten countries that opposed the extension were the United States, Russia, Israel, North Korea, Nicaragua, and Mali.

The U.S. opposition stemmed from a long-standing critique of Türk’s tenure. American diplomats argued that the high commissioner has disproportionately focused criticism on democratic states – particularly Israel, but also the United States, the United Kingdom, and others – while taking a softer line toward authoritarian regimes. In remarks surrounding the vote, a U.S. representative accused Türk of guiding the UN human-rights system “to its deathbed” by lecturing free societies and failing to confront abuses by governments such as Cuba’s with equal vigor. Washington also signalled it would reassess funding and engagement with the office.

France, which supported the extension, responded sharply. On Saturday, the French permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva posted on X: “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.” The post carried the hashtag #AmericaAlone.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz fired back quickly. He accused France of voting 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.” Waltz called the French position “disappointing – though not surprising” and said Paris was deflecting from its own “shameful vote to coddle some of the worst human rights abusers.”

The exchange escalated on Monday. During a Security Council meeting on Russia’s war in Ukraine, the U.S. delegation walked out as French Ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont began to speak. Alternate representative Dan Negrea told the council the United States would continue to exit during French interventions until Paris renounced its “condescending and disrespectful rhetoric.” He described the French comments as “politicised drivel” and “disingenuous grandstanding,” while insisting that “it is the United States that remains the beacon of liberty for the world.” Such a walkout by one permanent member against another is highly unusual.

The episode is more than a social-media spat. It crystallizes several overlapping tensions. First, the Trump administration has approached UN human-rights mechanisms with greater skepticism than its predecessors, viewing them as selectively politicized. Second, France under President Emmanuel Macron continues to defend a more traditional multilateral vision in which independent human-rights scrutiny retains moral authority even when it targets Western allies. Third, the personal and policy friction between Washington and Paris has grown more visible, turning what might once have been private disagreement into public theatre.

The era when diplomacy meant conveying a message without publicly shouting at one’s interlocutor is clearly over. Today the United Nations often feels more like the Wild West than the restrained multilateral forum it once aspired to be.

Caption: France representative Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York, New York, USA, 29 June 2026. EPA/OLGA FEDOROVA