[Peace-discuss] Republicans seek to blackmail UN by withholding funds

[ppatton at uiuc.edu]

 Congress Moves to Cut U.N. Funding
by Jim Lobe
 

WASHINGTON - In a move virtually certain to add to strains
between the U.S. Congress and the United Nations, the
International Relations Committee (HIRC) of the House of
Representatives Wednesday approved a sweeping bill that, if
passed into law, will require Washington to withhold up to
half of assessed U.S. contributions to the world body unless
it implements specific reforms.

Among other ”reforms,” The United Nations Reform Act of 2005,
which is expected to be approved on the House floor next week,
would also require the U.N. to fund most of its programs
through voluntary contributions, rather than mandatory dues
from its 191 member-states, and enable Washington to pick and
choose those programs it wished to fund.


We are very disappointed in the approval of a bill that will
most likely trigger new U.N. arrears for the U.S. The last
time the U.S. withheld funds, it led to a huge debt to the
U.N. and inhibited our ability to lead within the institution.

ex-Sen. Tim Wirth
president of the independent United Nations Foundation
It would also require the U.N. to set up a number of new
oversight boards to investigate the U.N. bureaucracy and
specific agencies, as well as adopt new rules that would bar
alleged human rights violators from serving the U.N. Human
Rights Commission.

And it would withhold U.S. support for new or expanded U.N.
peacekeeping operations until specific reforms are implemented.

”No observer, be they passionate supporter or dismissive
critic, can pretend that the current structure and operations
of the U.N. represent an acceptable standard,” said HIRC
chairman Henry Hyde, the Act's main author Wednesday.

”This Act will usher in reforms that both Republican and
Democratic administrations alike have long called for,
including a more focused and accountable budget, one that
should reflect the true priorities of the organization, shorn
of duplicate, ineffective and outdated programs,” he noted.

The Act drew immediate criticism from U.N. defenders,
including former Sen. Timothy Wirth, president of the
independent United Nations Foundation.

”We are very disappointed in the approval of a bill that will
most likely trigger new U.N. arrears for the U.S.,” he said.
”The last time the U.S. withheld funds, it led to a huge debt
to the U.N. and inhibited our ability to lead within the
institution.

”This is like trying to force a bank to renegotiate your home
mortgage by refusing to make your monthly payments,” he added.

”The Hyde U.N. Reform Act will only further exacerbate our
isolation in the world community, at a time when we need
allies,” warned Don Kraus, executive vice president of
Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS), a Washington lobby
formerly known as the World Federalist Association. ”The Bush
administration will be far more effective at achieving its
goals if it doesn't alienate potential allies.”

The administration, which has generally opposed withholding
dues to the U.N., has not taken a formal position on the bill,
which, if passed by the House, will then have to be taken up
later this summer by the Senate. The House Republican
leadership, which has strongly supported the bill, is
considered more to the right than either the Senate or the
administration.

In approving the bill, the HIRC rebuffed a Democratic
substitute, which included the same specific provisions but
gave the secretary of state discretion to decide how much
money could be withheld from the U.N. and specific programs
and agencies.

The bill comes amid growing hostility, particularly among
Republican lawmakers, toward the U.N. dating back to the
Security Council's refusal to back the Bush administration's
decision to go to war in Iraq in March 2003. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan's denunciation of that war as ”illegal” under the
U.N. Charter during last year's U.S. presidential campaign
also infuriated many Republicans.

In addition, recent revelations regarding possible corruption
by senior U.N. officials -- the subject of full-blown Senate
hearings -- and Annan's son's involvement in the Iraq
Oil-for-Food program, as well as sexual abuse of children and
women by some U.N. peacekeepers have added fuel to the
anti-U.N. fire, which has been eagerly stoked by key
neo-conservative and right-wing media, as well as leaders of
the Christian Right who have long regarded the world body with
suspicion.

Hyde, however, insisted that his bill is being put forward in
a ”constructive spirit” designed to ”strengthen the U.N. and
enable it to meet its mandate in ...facilitating diplomacy,
mediating disputes, monitoring the peace, and feeding the hungry.”

Some of the proposals, including barring membership in the
U.N. Human Rights Commission to governments with bad rights
records, echo recommendations made by Annan himself in his own
comprehensive reform agenda, ”In Larger Freedom: For
Development, Security, and Human Rights, for All.”

Kraus, however, warned that the unilateral and threatening way
Hyde's proposals are being presented -- and the resentment
that it is likely to cause -- is likely to undercut Annan's
own reform efforts.

Hyde's bill, for example, would unilaterally reduce
Washington's share of the U.N.'s regular biannual budget from
25 percent to only 22 percent. It also mandates that once the
budget is approved, it cannot increase without consensus
agreement (giving Washington or any other government an
effective veto), and, in any case, cannot increase beyond 10
percent, thus depriving the world body of its ability to cope
with unanticipated emergencies.

It also calls for shifting 18 programs, including economic and
social affairs, least-developed countries, trade and
development, refugee protection, international drug control,
and Palestinian refugee, from the regular assessed budget to
voluntarily funded programs, thus giving ”all countries more
control over how to best invest their contributions,” as Hyde
said.

If such a reform is not adopted, the bill calls for Washington
to redirect its contributions to ”priority areas which include
internal oversight, human rights, and humanitarian assistance.”

The U.N. Public Information Office and international
conferences are also targeted for major across-the-board
reductions, beginning with 10 percent for 2007 followed by a
20 percent cut in 2008.

The bill mandates the creation of an Independent Oversight
Board and an Ethics Office with broad investigative authority
over suspected mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and other
kinds of wrongdoing within the U.N., its agencies and
peacekeeping operations.

Countries subject to sanction by the Security Council or
country-specific human rights resolutions would be banned from
serving on the U.N. Human Rights commission. In a bow to
Israel, the bill also mandates that no U.N. human rights body
could have a standing agenda item that related only to one
country.

Similarly, the bill calls for major reforms in the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), among them the
establishment of two new sub-bodies which have sought by the
Bush administration.

Under the bill, the U.S. must withhold funds from
treaty-monitoring bodies in which the U.S. is not a signatory
to the underlying treaty or protocol.

Failure to implement any of the specific mandates would result
in the withholding of half of the assessed U.S. obligations
which amounted to 438 million dollars this year. 
__________________________________________________________________
Dr. Paul Patton
Research Scientist
Beckman Institute  Rm 3027  405 N. Mathews St.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  Urbana, Illinois 61801
work phone: (217)-265-0795   fax: (217)-244-5180
home phone: (217)-344-5812
homepage: http://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ppatton/www/index.html

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the
source of all true art and science."
-Albert Einstein
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