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Funding for the United Nations BudgetThe United Nations, particularly its peacekeeping department, is suffering from a funding crisis, caused by the failure of member states to pay their dues. The primary debtor country is the United States, which as of June 15th, 2001, owed the UN nearly $2 billion. Congress often appropriates less than what is required to meet our regular budget and peacekeeping obligations , and less than what is required to pay off the debts the U.S. has accrued from assessed peacekeeping operations over the past years. Even when Congress does authorize and appropriate funds to pay U.S. assessments to the UN, sometimes individual Members of Congress will place 'holds' on the payment. In past years, certain Senators have used a little known tactic known as a 'hold' to block the State Department from releasing funds Congress has approved for UN peacekeeping missions and for the UN tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The U.S. GDP is 26% of the world's economy. The U.S. is currently assessed 25% of the U.N.'s regular budget and 31% of its peacekeeping budget. However, Congress has unilaterally reduced its peacekeeping contribution to 25%. This gap has increased the debt of the U.S. to the UN, and the UN to its members. The majority of the U.S. arrears to
the UN actually are owed by the UN to many of our allies as
reimbursements for their troop contributions to peacekeeping
missions. Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke
worked on negotiating different terms, which culminated in a
deal made in December 2000 in which the UN General Assembly
agreed to a reduction of the U.S. assessment rate. By not
showing a good faith effort to pay current UN dues, the U.S.
loses credibility with member nations and undercuts efforts to
negotiate a reduction in U.S. assessments. |
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