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	US Congress moves to cut U.N. Funding by Washington Post / IPS USA   June 9, 2005   "Annan: U.S. withholding Dues is Bad Idea", by Nick Wadhams. (AP/ Washington Post)   U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday criticized proposed legislation before the U.S. House of Representatives that would link reforms of the world body to payment of U.S. dues.   Annan said he hoped the bill, introduced Tuesday by Illinois Republican Henry Hyde, won't become law. He repeated his oft-stated view that withholding dues from the United Nations would be "counterproductive."   "We are going through reforms and the U.S. has a natural leadership role and I hope it will work with other Member States to reform and strengthen the Organization," Annan told reporters. "I don't think holding back on contributions sends the right message."   Annan discussed the bill during a phone call with President Bush on Thursday morning, he told dozens of U.N. ambassadors at a breakfast later in the morning. Annan told the ambassadors that Bush had reiterated the U.S. position that it opposes the idea of withholding dues.   On Wednesday, a GOP-controlled House committee approved Hyde's bill, which would withhold one-half of U.S. dues to the United Nations unless it made specific changes.   June 14, 2005   Washington, D.C.—The Better World Campaign (BWC) today released a letter signed by eight former U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations as part of BWC's campaign against the withholding of UN dues. This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is slated to vote on legislation titled the United Nations Reform Act of 2005. Sponsored by International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL), the bill would automatically stop payment of a large portion of the United State's annual dues to the UN causing a huge debt and inhibiting the U.S. ability to lead within the institution.   Reforming the United Nations is the right goal. Withholding our dues to the UN is the wrong methodology. When we last built debt with the UN, the United States isolated ourselves from our allies within the UN and made diplomacy a near impossible task, the letter said.   The eight former ambassadors are Madeleine Albright, John Danforth, Richard Holbrooke, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Donald F. McHenry, Thomas R. Pickering, Bill Richardson, and Andrew Young.   As part of this initiative, the BWC also launched today an advertising campaign. Ads will run today and Thursday in the Washington Post, Washington Times, Congress Daily AM, Congressional Quarterly, and Roll Call.   “The last time we reneged on our dues, other countries became less willing to work with the U.S. and more resistant to our proposals. American support is critical to make the UN more effective, the first advertisement reads.   Several years ago the U.S. accrued one billion in debt to the UN from non payment of dues. A broad and bipartisan group in Congress, led by Senators Jesse Helms and Joe Biden, ultimately drafted and passed legislation to normalize U.S.-UN relations out of concern that the large and growing arrears were harmful to U.S. interests with other member states of the UN.   Withholding UN dues to the United Nations may sound like smart policy, but would be counter-productive at this time, so soon after the Helms-Biden process was completed. It would create resentment, build animosity and actually strengthen opponents of reform. It would place in jeopardy the reform initiatives most important to U.S. interests. The fact is reforms cost money and withholding dues impairs the UN's ability to make the changes needed, the ambassadors wrote.   If passed, the UN Reform Act of 2005 would endanger UN peacekeeping efforts by reinstating a 25 percent cap on U.S. contributions to UN peacekeeping missions despite the fact that Congress has voted since 2001 to pay our currently assessed share, which is now at 27.1 percent. It will also cause a shortfall in funds needed to sustain troops on the ground which will jeopardize the newly authorized peacekeeping mission in Sudan.   The US must pay its dues and demand the same of other nations. And we must provide diplomatic leadership to bring nations together to help the UN more effectively address crucial world problems, the ad said.   (The Better World Campaign is a bi-partisan, non-profit national education and outreach effort dedicated to enhancing the awareness of and appreciation for the vital role the United Nations plays around the world).   Jun 8th, 2005   UN Reform Act - Damaging. (Citizens for Global Solutions)   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.   June 8, 2005   "US Congress moves to cut U.N. Funding", by Jim Lobe. (IPS)   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 programmes through voluntary contributions, rather than mandatory dues from its 191 member-states, and enable Washington to pick and choose those programmes it wished to fund.. And it would withhold U.S. support for new or expanded U.N. peacekeeping operations until specific reforms are implemented.   The Act drew immediate criticism from U.N. defenders, including former Senator 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 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 upset many right wing Republicans..
	NGOs: ''The world's new superpower's seek a better world" by Thalif Deen Inter Press Service Canada   Montreal, June 4, 2005   U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's characterization of civil society as ''the world's new superpower'' reverberated through the corridors of McGill University here this week as 350-plus representatives of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) met to hatch strategies to prod world governments on crucial political, social, and economic issues that plague the world's poorer nations.   ''After decades of undemocratic and ineffective global governance on key global issues - ranging from development and environment to human rights, trade, and security - now is the time to privilege and highlight the visions and views of civil society leaders around the world,'' said James Riker of the University of Maryland, USA.   The United Nations is not simply an inevitable 'tool of U.S. foreign policy' like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), even if it often gets used in that way...We have to reclaim the United Nations, not destroy it. - Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies.   Playing an important role in this new vision for a better global society should be the estimated 40,000 international NGOs who comprise today's civil society, he said.   NGOs have increased in numbers and have begun to fill essential gaps in global leadership on key issues, he added, citing successes including the international campaign to ban landmines and the Kyoto Protocol to curb global warming.   Riker said that civil society also played a watchdog role by mobilizing to oppose secret negotiations over proposed rules governing foreign direct investment through the Multilateral Agreement on Investment.   They also undertook advocacy campaigns that compelled global institutions to act on debt relief and acknowledge serious problems in their backing for dams.   Kathryn Mulvey, executive director of the U.S.-based Corporate Accountability International, said the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which came into force last February, also was a major NGO achievement.   More than 200 NGOs were directly or indirectly involved in the entire three-year process, she said. ''The FCTC is the first global health and corporate accountability treaty that challenged the abusive practices by transnational corporations,'' Mulvey told IPS.   The treaty, backed by civil society organizations as well as countries from Asia, the Caribbean, Middle East, and Pacific, was a collaborative effort that ultimately will save millions of lives and change the way tobacco giants like Altria, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International operate globally, she added.   Rajesh Tandon, chair of the Montreal International Forum, said that while NGOs should continue to critique governments and their policies, ''we should also look for opportunities to collaborate because you cannot move forward without collaboration.''   Asked if he was confident that civil society could successfully link up with governments on public policy issues, Tandon said yes, ''because there is more maturity in the NGO movement now than five years ago.''   The World Social Forum (WSF) -- held annually since 2001 in Porte Allegre, Brazil and Mumbai, India -- drew over 75,000 people and hundreds of NGOs last January.   Created in response to the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland -- which represents the world's big business interests -- the WSF has continued to spearhead the campaign against what participants call corporate-led globalization, which they say has had a devastating impact on the economies of developing nations.   Cashing in on their collective track record, the NGOs meeting in Montreal this week agreed to promote regional integration to enhance the role of civil society on issues relating to debt, hunger, development assistance, the environment and changes they say are needed at multilateral institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).   The first test will come June 23-24 when the United Nations hosts two days of civil society hearings to discuss poverty eradication and U.N. structural reforms.   ''We should treat the U.N.'s civil society hearings as a prototype of an annual global civil society forum we seek to institute at the United Nations,'' said Rob Wheeler of the Association of World Citizens, a U.S.-based association claiming affiliates in at least 30 countries.   The NGO hearings will precede a U.N. summit meeting of world leaders scheduled to take place in mid-September.   Benton Musslewhite of One World Now, a group promoting international studies among high school students in the Seattle, USA region, said that he, along with Wheeler, planned to establish an NGO steering committee to campaign to revise the U.N. charter and make it what activists groups would consider a more responsive instrument of global governance. "The people who have run the United Nations for the last 60 years have done wonderful things, he said, adding, ''look at the U.N. children's agency UNICEF and the vaccination of millions of children.''   But the fact remains that the present United Nations ''simply does not have the power to take globally effective steps to deal with global warming, save rainforests, protect oceans, keep the peace, generate disarmament, end poverty, prevent terrorism, stop genocide, control pandemics, provide aid when natural disasters occur, and address the many other serious global problems we face,'' he said.   Phyllis Bennis of the Washington-based think tank Institute for Policy Studies said there is ''a big challenge ahead within the anti-globalisation and peace movements around the world''.   And that challenge, she told IPS, is to educate people about why ''the United Nations is not simply an inevitable 'tool of U.S. foreign policy' like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), even if it often gets used in that way.'' She emphasized that ''we have to reclaim the United Nations, not destroy it.''   Nigel Martin, president of the Montreal International Forum, which organized this week's talks here, said that NGOs increasingly are mobilizing their resources to campaign for a better global society, as evidenced at the WSF meetings in Brazil and India. He also singled out the rising interest of youth in political, social and economic issues. ''We had to turn down over 100 youth volunteers worldwide who wanted to participate in our seminar,'' Martin said.   ''They came with extraordinary understanding of the issues we were going to discuss. The demand was overwhelming. We plan to tap this source and this energy for the future,'' he added.   © Copyright 2005 IPS - Inter Press Service
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