When I interviewed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently, I was curious to hear what he would say about US congressional criticism that the United Nations has become hijacked by totalitarian regimes.
Some weeks ago, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a measure sponsored by its chairman, Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, that would, among other things, make US contributions to the United Nations voluntary.
Examples cited
Among the examples of outrageous UN practices cited by the bill’s sponsors:
• Earlier this year, North Korea, which consistently violates UN Security Council resolutions on its secret nuclear weapons programme, was appointed head of the UN Conference on Disarmament.
• In November 2010, Saudi Arabia, where women are forbidden to drive, was elected as a board member of UN Women, the agency in charge of ending discrimination against women.
• In June 2010, Cuba, where there are no free elections and peaceful oppositionists are jailed for circulating the Human Rights Declaration, was named vice chair of the UN Human Rights Council.
• In April 2010, Iran, where women — but not men — who commit adultery are sentenced to death by stoning, was elected to the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
• Almost half of the UN Human Rights Council’s resolutions last year were condemnations of Israel’s rights abuses, without any similar condemnations of the Palestinian terrorist rockets, bombings and other abuses that triggered Israel’s actions.
• In the past decade, three UN Conferences on Racism, known as “Durban” conferences, have turned into “anti-American, anti-Semitic hate fests,” a statement by the bill’s sponsors says.
The proposed legislation would prohibit US contributions to the UN Human Rights Council, as well as to the Durban conferences. The Obama administration has threatened to veto it.
Some concerns
“I am deeply concerned by all these actions by some members of Congress to cut funding to the United Nations,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told me. “We are promoting peace, security and development. We need the strong support from the United States.”
The United States is the biggest single UN donor, accounting for 22 per cent of the UN regular budget, and 27 per cent of the UN peace-keeping budget.
But aren’t the bill’s sponsors right when they point out that it’s ridiculous to have Cuba in the Human Rights Council, or Saudi Arabia in the UN women’s rights body? I asked Ban.
He said that “while there has been some criticism” of the Human Rights Council, it has recently made “a great contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights” with its actions on Libya, Syria and other countries.
Some key independent human rights groups agree with that assessment. Human Rights Watch, an independent advocacy group, concluded in a recent report that over the past year the UN rights monitoring group has made “notable progress.” While it “continued to focus disproportionately” on Israel, the council started investigations into abuses by Libya, Syria and Côte d’Ivoire, and appointed an expert to investigate human rights in Iran, it said.
Asked about the proposed US legislation, Human Rights Watch global advocacy director Peggy Hicks told me, “It’s dangerous and counterproductive. There is a strong track record showing that when the United States is at the table, we can get better results than boycotting, or leaving things to others.”
My opinion: I agree with the diagnosis that the United Nations often acts as a mutual protection society by the world’s worst human rights abusers. Dictatorships like Cuba, North Korea or Iran routinely help other countries get elected to UN economic or social committees, in exchange for their support to get elected at UN human rights-related panels, where they can stop investigations against them.
But the cure offered by the House Republicans’ bill would make things even worse. Other ways to press the United Nations to adhere to its own human rights principles, including diplomatic efforts to push emerging powers such as Brazil, South Africa and India to embrace a pro-human rights agenda instead of supporting tyrants, would make more sense than US measures that would give rights abusers a free ride at the United Nations, and make Washington look like the outcast.
© The Miami Herald, 2011. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Media Services.
