Originally published on the CGS blog on August 31, 2011.
August is usually a quiet time in Washington, but not this year for those who advocate in support of the United Nations. On August 30th, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) introduced the United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act of 2011, a bill which threatens to undermine the United Nations by conditioning U.S. financial support on the U.N. meeting a number of reforms demanded by Republicans in Congress.
Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen timed her introduction of the United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act to come right before the U.N. General Assembly session in September, when a vote on Palestinian statehood is expected to occur. In doing so, she hopes to capitalize on American support for Israel in order to push through an anti-U.N. agenda she has long championed (she introduced the same bill in the previous Congress, with a few changes).
The bottom line is, this bill is bad legislation. It attempts to hold hostage the U.S. commitment to the U.N. and the international community based on a single vote in the General Assembly. But voting on controversial international issues is what the U.N. is designed to do-settling conflicts through votes rather than through wars. For the U.S. to threaten to withdraw its support and fail to pay its dues to the U.N. based on the outcome of a single U.N. vote is simply wrong, counterproductive, and hurts our ability to lead.
The bill would do a number of things to harm the U.N. and America’s standing as a world leader. According to the Better World Campaign, some of the bill’s “real world” effects are that it:
- Erodes America’s leadership at the United Nations and cripples a vital tool of U.S. national security.
- Establishes a moratorium on new or expanded peacekeeping missions.
- Handicaps ongoing peacekeeping operations in places like South Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire and Haiti.
- Increases costs to U.S. taxpayers for political missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Curbs vital efforts to combat terrorism, monitor sanctions, and prevent WMD from getting into the hands of rogue states and terrorists.
- Slows the critically important process of reconstruction in Haiti.
- Undermines America’s leadership on matters of international security and humanitarian crises.
- Jeopardizes free and fair elections in countries like Liberia, DR Congo, Haiti and Cote d’Ivoire.
- Defunds efforts to combat global pandemics.
- Removes our voice from the only agency monitoring Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
- Undercuts U.S. ability to push for new UN reforms and removes funding for ongoing reforms, like internal oversight and ethics.
Some specific harmful provisions of the bill:
It seeks to shift the U.N. funding system from an assessed to a voluntary system of contributions. The Secretary of State would be required to certify to Congress that 80 percent of the U.N. regular budget was based on voluntary contributions. If after two years from the enactment of the bill, this requirement has not been met, the U.S. would withhold 50 percent of its assessed contributions from the U.N. regular budget. This would result in severe underfunding of the U.N. and send a troubling message about U.S. commitment to the international community.
It authorizes the U.S. to audit and ivestigate the use of U.S. contributions to the U.N., and withhold funding for U.N. agencies if they do not share oversight information.
It would require the U.N. to carry out certain transparency-related and other reforms. If this does not occur, the bill would withhold U.S. contributions to the U.N. regular budget.
It would require the Secretary of State to withhold any U.S. funding to the Human Rights Council (HRC). It also prohibits the U.S. to run for a seat on the HRC.
It mandates a number of reforms of U.N. peacekeeping operations and requires the U.S. use its voice, vote and influence at the U.N. to oppose creating new or expanding existing peacekeeping operations, with the exception of when a genocide or similar situation appears imminent, if these reforms are not carried out.
This bill will likely be voted on by the House of Representatives in September. I urge all Representatives to oppose the United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act.
