Milei's latest drastic move, Argentina is sole UN holdout voting 'no' to ending gender violence

Javier Milei's Argentina cast the sole vote against a non-binding UN resolution that denounced violence against women and girls.

The usual suspects abstained from voting on a seemingly uncontroversial United Nations resolution that denounced violence against women and girls on Thursday — Iran, Russia, North Korea.

But the country casting the sole vote against the nonbinding resolution, drafted by France and the Netherlands, took the world by surprise. It was Argentina, long considered one of Latin America’s most socially progressive countries.

Unleashing an avalanche of criticism across the political spectrum on Friday, the ‘no’ vote by Buenos Aires marked the latest in a series of dramatic foreign policy shifts under President Javier Milei, the most right-wing leader in Argentina's 41 years of democracy.

It comes just days after Milei, an outspoken climate change skeptic, abruptly called Argentina's negotiators home from the UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, stirring concerns that the radical libertarian might seek to emulate U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in withdrawing Argentina entirely from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Not only has Milei transformed Argentine foreign policy in line with the United States and Israel, his government has also taken fringe positions on the global stage that fly in the face of the liberal, rules-based international order.

Argentina's vote at the UN Thursday recalled a similar clash last month when all Group of 20 nations, including Saudi Arabia, agreed to adopt language about gender equality in a joint statement — except Argentina.

“Argentina votes alone, against the rest of humanity,” the conservative party of former President Mauricio Macri, an ally of Milei’s government, wrote on social media platform X Friday.