Originally issued as a CGS press release on June 8, 2005.
Washington DC – Today, the House International Relations Committee passed the United Nations Reform Act as introduced by Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL). The act would withhold U.S. dues to the UN until U.S. officials certified reform of the international body. Citizens for Global Solutions believes that the Hyde UN Reform Act is the absolute wrong way to ensure that the United Nations is made more efficient, effective and accountable. U.S. interests are better served by engaging the UN in its reform process and providing it with adequate resources, rather than by holding the international body hostage with the threat of withholding dues.
Don Kraus, Executive Vice President of Citizens for Global Solutions said, “The history of UN reform demonstrates that withholding dues is not an effective tool. During the 1990’s the U.S. built up over a billion dollars in arrears to the UN, creating resentment and making it more difficult to achieve U.S. foreign policy goals. The Hyde UN Reform Act will only further exacerbate our isolation in the world community, at a time when we need allies.”
The upcoming UN Millennium Summit, to be held in New York in September, provides a true forum for the Bush Administration to assist in the reforming of the UN in U.S. interest. In fact, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has already laid out a comprehensive reform agenda, in his report In Larger Freedom, which incorporates many of the U.S.’s top priorities. However, the agenda set forth by the Hyde UN Reform Act threatens to undercut this historic and golden opportunity.
The act, which will likely be brought to the House floor next week, will lead to the U.S. withholding up to 50 percent of its UN dues, and would mandate changing funding for many UN programs from an assessed to a voluntary basis. This will create unnecessary and damaging resentment towards the United States at the UN, will hinder the Bush Administration’s ability to pursue its top priorities, including UN reform, and will subsequently weaken America’s tasks in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terrorism.
As Mr. Kraus notes, “The United States shouldn’t start out the September Summit meeting on the defensive by threatening to cut its UN dues. The Bush Administration will be far more effective at achieving its goals if it doesn’t alienate potential allies. If Congress truly wants a reformed, effective UN that can support U.S. interests, it should not support legislation that mandates withholding U.S. dues to the United Nations. Full funding of U.S. financial obligations allows the U.S. to make a better case for the reforms it wants to see at the UN.”
