Johnson or Macron: Who’s the Real ‘Emperor with No Clothes’?

On first sight, President Emmanuel Macron of France might appear to advance a more human rights-friendly foreign policy than Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, at least judging by the many lofty statements in defense of multilateralism, the rule of law, and human rights that have become Macron’s trademark. Johnson, meanwhile, has openly called for “opt-outs of human rights laws” and caricaturized “lefty human rights lawyers and other do-gooders,” among other troubling statements that are derisive of human rights norms and defenders. Yet the upcoming membership of both countries to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2021-2024 term― both were elected without...