US walks out of UN meeting after France says it sided with North Korea on rights vote

The United States walked out of a UN Security Council meeting on Monday after France said Washington had sided with North Korea, Russia and other states in opposing the extension of the UN human rights chief’s term.

Dan Negrea, an alternate US representative to the UN General Assembly and a senior delegation official, said the American delegation left when French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont began speaking at a meeting focused on the war in Ukraine.

The protest followed a UN General Assembly vote on Friday in which the United States was among 10 countries that opposed extending Volker Turk’s term as UN high commissioner for human rights.

North Korea, Russia and Nicaragua were also among the countries that voted against the extension.

After the vote, France’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva said the United States “used to be a beacon of human rights” but now stood alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali and Russia.

Negrea described the French comments as “disingenuous grandstanding” and said the United States remained “the beacon of liberty for the world”.

Bonnafont responded to the walkout by referring to the approaching 250th anniversary of the United States and saying that “everyone knows the role France has played in that”.

He said France was working at the United Nations to protect the institution, its independence and its ability to support the UN charter, human rights and peace.