French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during an official visit to the Republic of Moldova in Chisinau, on August 217, 2025. Danielle Pletka and Brett Schaefer, of the American Enterprise Institute, say France’s human rights advocacy in the UN is too focused on Israel. (Shutterstock/Victor Mogyldea)

Why France Has No Right to Lecture the US on Human Rights

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When the subject isn’t Israel, Paris’ human rights positions at the UN acquire a certain flexibility.

On July 24, the United Nations General Assembly voted to reappoint Austrian Volker Türk as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The United States and Israel were among the 10 nations opposing his reappointment. The United States opposed High Commissioner Türk; US Representative for UN Management and Reform Amb. Jeffrey Bartos explained, based on a long track record of criticizing democracies while giving brutal regimes like Cuba and Iran a pass. 

These kinds of diplomatic disagreements are par for the course at the United Nations, where spats about process are mother’s milk and issues like Iran and Russia are left to the adults to debate separately. Generally, such teapot tempests pass quickly to the next issue on the agenda, and allies agree to disagree. In this instance, however, France, putatively a US ally, weighed in with heavy criticism: “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.”

Pardonnez-moi? France’s record on human rights is, to put it diplomatically, selective. Even far-left human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch regularly nail Paris for systemic racism and antisemitism, restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, excessive use of force by authorities, and erosion of the rule of law. 

Internationally, France has no compunction against maintaining cozy diplomatic relations with China, Cuba, Eritrea, Sudan, and........

© The National Interest