President’s FY 2005 Budget Request for International Organizations and Peacekeeping

I believe this budget request makes a very strong statement. It makes clear that we value our membership in these international organizations and solidly support UN peacekeeping. It affirms that we believe the United Nations is important to our national interests, and that contributions of our national treasure can help further our national goals in the world.

There is no other global forum that brings vastly different governments together to try to advance peace and security, counter terrorism and proliferation, fight endemic poverty, and stem the spread of infectious diseases, and promote human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy, and prosperity.

The UN’s record of achievements is mixed, however. Its actions do not always reflect its founding principles, or our priorities; and gaining consensus is a time-consuming challenge. The system is huge, costly, cumbersome, and sometimes lacking in accountability.

Yet, for the most part, UN agencies have been doing good work -- from the good offices of the Secretary-General to help resolve long-standing conflicts, to peacekeeping, nuclear safeguards, and counterterrorism cooperation, to democracy building, SARS containment, food delivery and refugee relief, and standardizing airline safety regulations.

Recognition of such good outcomes is why we continue to support UN agencies through our assessed contributions. Over the past 2 years or so, our assessed and voluntary contributions to the entire UN system have averaged about $3 billion per year, of which your subcommittee provides nearly half.

Mr. Chairman, that is a sizeable amount of money. And that is why we, like the members of this Committee and others, take such long hard looks to see how that money is being spent. We want these organizations to deliver value for the money. We want the UN and subsidiary bodies like the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to be more faithful to their founding principles. We want the international system to stand ready to respond to serious global problems as they arise.

We understand that with membership comes the responsibility to make sure the organizations operate as efficiently and effectively as possible. All of our funding, all of our efforts, demonstrate America’s commitment to working multilaterally to achieve good ends. So does rejoining UNESCO after a 19-year absence. So too does striving to give top status to promotion of democracy, rule of law, and freedom in UN bodies and on-the-ground programs; and pressing more democracies to run for election to the CHR; and working with them to ensure that body does in fact defend the human rights of people everywhere.

Mr. Chairman, I believe full funding for membership in these organizations demonstrates our commitment to partnering with other countries to achieve goals the President, the Congress, and the American people want. It also demonstrates our understanding of what Secretary Powell calls the need to balance America’s unique power with our desire to influence world leaders, to persuade them to do what’s right and what’s just for their people. And that is, to advance democracy, human rights, and freedom.

This understanding is why the President has requested a 19% increase in funding for the CIO account to pay our assessed contributions to the regular operating budgets of those 44 organizations. Specifically, the request for this account includes:

• Full funding for the Calendar Year 2004 operating budgets of the UN and nine other international organizations, which we pay on a deferred basis;

• Full funding for the 2005 operating budgets of 34 other international organizations;

• $79 million in funding to address the estimated shortfall from FY 2004, so that we do not fall into arrears. I note with appreciation that Congress approved the President’s request for FY 2004. It would have been enough, except that many of these organizations bill us in foreign currency, and exchange rates have worked strongly against us.

• Thus, most of the increases in the FY 2005 budget request are to cover exchange-rate losses and, to a much lesser extent, inflation in the budgets of or assessments to these organizations.

• It also includes $6 million in support of a $1.2 billion host-country loan to the UN to help renovate its 50-year old complex in New York, which I will discuss in more detail later.

Beyond these numbers, the President’s request reflects important UN programmatic increases in the areas that concern all of us greatly.

President Bush has said there can be “no neutral ground in the fight between civilization and terror.” In this respect, the UN is increasing funding for the important work of the Counter-Terrorism Committee. The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution (UNSCR 1535) last week to revitalize the CTC and strengthen its ability to contribute to this critical priority. The resolution calls for CTC reorganization and staff consolidation and enhancement so as to better monitor UN member state implementation of the counterterrorism measures in Resolution 1373. It seeks to match up countries needing technical assistance with those able to provide it, and to facilitate the exchange of counterterrorism information and best practices among 60 some international and regional organizations engaged in the war on terror.

Helping assist the Afghan and Iraqi people build free, stable, and prosperous societies is another important priority. The UN membership has agreed to fund critical missions to those countries. The Security Council has just unanimously voted to extend UNAMA, the UN mission in Afghanistan, for another year. That will enable the good work on the ground there to progress.

For example, UNAMA and the interim government are collaborating to register and educate voters, especially women, before Afghanistan’s first free and fair elections in recent history. The UN is working with coalition partners to support the Afghan Government in security sector reform. The disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) effort under the Afghan “New Beginnings” program is meeting with increasing success; former militia forces are being decommissioned and reintegrated into productive civilian life. And the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is implementing valuable counternarcotics projects, from supporting alternative livelihoods and drug-demand reduction, to monitoring opium production and strengthening counternarcotics law enforcement capacities.

In Iraq, we welcome the UN’s decision to return. The UN and its mission, UNAMI, have a vital role to play, including with economic reconstruction, humanitarian and political issues. We are in discussions with the UN on the type of role it is prepared to play, both before and after June 30.

Promoting international peace is one of the key reasons we belong to the UN. Peacekeeping is important. So is peacebuilding. The UN Secretariat is playing a critical role in promoting peace in Cyprus. We particularly acknowledge the Secretary-General’s strong role. As he rightly pointed out in February, “after 40 years, a political settlement is at last in reach, provided both sides summon the necessary political will.”

Our contributions for the UN tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) are helping to bring war criminals to justice and promote peace once conflicts have ended. Another major priority is eliminating the threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. At last September’s UN General Assembly, the President called on the member states to pass stronger measures to counter proliferation and a new nonproliferation resolution. This has remained one of our highest priorities.

To prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons, we support the increase in the budget of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) so that it can strengthen its safeguards program. The IAEA serves critical national security, counterterrorism, and nuclear nonproliferation interests. It uncovered and broadcast clandestine Iranian nuclear activities. It reported North Korea’s violations to the Security Council for action. And it is playing an essential monitoring role as Libya’s nuclear weapons program is dismantled.

The bulk of the increase in the IAEA budget (about $15 million) will go to improving safeguards, our highest priority in that agency, and a critical pillar in international efforts to counter proliferation worldwide. Just as the number of states accepting IAEA safeguards has increased over the past two decades, so too has the number and complexity of nuclear facilities subject to those safeguards. This funding increase will also help the agency meet staffing needs to ensure its important work gets done.

Mr. Chairman, like this important work, the FY 2005 budget request will continue to enable work we support in other technical agencies. Our assessments will help the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) strengthen aviation and maritime safety and security.
The over $96 million in assessed contributions for the World Health Organization (WHO) will go to support its important work in public health, disease surveillance, and containment. WHO was most effective last year in containing the SARS outbreak, and it continues to monitor that disease and others so as to ramp up its response should the need arise. It is also close to achieving its goal of eradicating polio by 2005.

Last year, we realized the President’s decision to rejoin UNESCO. Our high-level delegation was well received. We won election to its Executive Board, and now sit on its Legal Committee, intergovernmental communications council, and Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee. We persuaded UNESCO to dedicate our dues to cover our membership last year to revitalize education infrastructure in post-conflict areas, such as Afghanistan and Liberia, and to launching a new program for preserving cultural artifacts.

Funding for UNESCO this year will help our efforts to expand literacy, particularly for girls, and promote tolerance around the world by promoting textbook and curriculum reform. Both of these are key to building peaceful and prosperous societies. It will also help that agency promote science, math, and engineering education, promote press freedom, and develop sound scientific standards.

Our contributions to the International Labor Organization (ILO) are well used to combat the scourge of human trafficking, particularly of children; to end unacceptable forms of child labor; to develop standards for more secure travel documentation for seafarers; and to promote the fundamental labor rights that underpin democracy. The ILO is also working with employers and labor organizations to deal with HIV/AIDS in the workplace.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has and continues to undertake valuable work to protect Americans in the United States and the rest of the Western hemisphere from a broad range of serious health threats, such as tuberculosis, malaria and cholera. As a result of its campaigns, measles is on the verge of eradication in the hemisphere. PAHO’s April 24-30 vaccination campaign in the Americas will reach 40 million people, especially children, and inoculate them against polio, measles, rubella, and tetanus. This valuable work would not be possible without our 59.4% contribution to PAHO’s regular assessed budget.

Mr. Chairman, through full funding of the CIO account, we promote other important international priorities as well -- goals like economic development, food security, and sound trade and labor standards. The CIO account funds our participation in the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Trade Organization, and the Organization of American States, as well as our contributions to the civil budget of NATO. Full funding also means we must leverage strong leadership in all of these organizations to help them stay focused on the core purposes for which they were founded.

This is true for the UN as a whole. And it is particularly true for UN commissions, such as the Commission on Human Rights. Mr. Chairman, this Committee, like this Administration, has deep concerns about human rights abuses around the world. As Under Secretary Paula Dobriansky said at the opening of the CHR last month, “the hallmark of effective diplomacy is candor.”

We are being very candid with other members at the CHR. We stepped out forthrightly last year when we took the unprecedented step of calling for a vote in the CHR when it looked like Libya would gain the chair by a simple nod. Our principled action angered some; but it brought global attention to a problem in the way parts of the UN system operate, procedures which undermine the integrity and effectiveness of this global body.
You can be sure we will continue to be candid about other problems and human rights abuses, and seek appropriate remedies. That is why we are offering a resolution on China, which has been backsliding on human rights at a time of improved relations on other fronts. That is why we are working with Honduras, which is offering a resolution on Cuba’s continued human rights abuses, including the crackdown on journalists and others a year ago. It is also why we are working with Europeans to push for resolutions on Belarus and Turkmenistan, and why we are strongly lobbying for the European resolutions on North Korea, Zimbabwe, and Sudan.

The Sudan resolution, for example, would call on the government not only to actively promote human rights, but also to immediately address the security and humanitarian crises in Darfur. We hope all parties there will work toward a comprehensive and lasting peace that respects human rights, restores the rule of law, and permits unhindered humanitarian access to all those in need.

We are seeking to improve the credibility and integrity of the Commission as the foremost international body founded to defend human rights. The chief way we seek to do this is by forming an operational caucus with the 31 other democratic members of the 53-member Commission. This particular democracy caucus is currently, for example, coordinating support in the Commission for UN programs that would promote democracy on the ground, through a U.S.-Romanian-Peruvian resolution.

But the democracy caucus idea is one that can add value to every UN decision-making venue. We are working to change the way the UN functions, to refocus its emphasis on affirming the important principles on which it was founded—democracy, human rights, and fundamental freedoms. Turning to the CIPA account, the President has requested $650 million for peacekeeping efforts in FY 2005. Mr. Chairman, let me put this amount in perspective.

The CIPA account funds our assessed contributions to UN peacekeeping missions. It has always reflected the number and size of missions in the field. The current size of the CIPA account reflects not only that there are 13 peacekeeping missions on the ground. It also reflects the fact that, in the last three fiscal years, the UN has closed or downsized missions, supported the expansion of some, and begun others.

As we’ve seen in the past year, requirements for the CIPA account can arise quickly. We cannot predict what conflicts will arise that will require UN action. We scrutinize every proposal for new peacekeeping operations carefully. We look at mandates, costs, necessary force structures, and exit strategies. We are cautious, because historically, whereas UN missions have been effective at maintaining ceasefires and supporting implementation of peace agreements, they have not been as effective at peace enforcement, when offensive military action is needed to end conflicts.

A result of this type of focused analysis is that most of the UN peacekeeping missions begun in the early 1990s have ended, once their jobs were done. Some examples this past year include missions on the Iraq-Kuwait border, in Bosnia Herzegovina, and on the Prevlaka Peninsula. We are examining possible reductions in some long-standing missions. We will continue to press the UN to reduce and close down missions that complete their mandates.

UNAMSIL is being downsized in Sierra Leone following successful presidential elections and the establishment of a new government. That country’s military and police capabilities have a ways to go to provide adequate security, however. Prudence dictates that we extend the duration of the mission, even as we proceed to downsize it significantly. Nevertheless, the departure of Charles Taylor from Liberia has reduced Sierra Leone’s external threat, to the point that the U.S., U.K., and UN are discussing how quickly we can downsize the mission, and when it could end altogether.

Similarly, the peacekeeping mission in East Timor, UNMISET, is being scaled back this year, as the Timorese develop their own police and military capacities.

Mr. Chairman, we also have supported new peacekeeping operations in recent years particularly in Africa, such as the missions for Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia. At the same time, we are looking at possible peacekeeping activities in Haiti, Sudan, and Burundi -- places where the UN could play a valuable role in ending conflicts and creating the conditions for long-term peace and stability.

There can sometimes be a lag time between when we put together our budget request and new peacekeeping needs arise. Our initial effort is to accommodate additional needs within the total resources available to us. Thanks to Congress, an additional $245 million was included in last year’s supplemental for a peacekeeping mission after Charles Taylor had left Liberia, and $200 million to help rebuild that country.
UN peacekeeping allows us to leverage our military, financial, and technical resources more efficiently. A case in point was the pressure on the U.S. to send a large military presence to Liberia last summer; our Armed Forces were already deeply engaged around the world. We provided a brief presence at the outset, which set the stage for the very sizeable UN force that today is keeping the peace there.

Even more recently, U.S. troops joined with other countries from this hemisphere to form a multinational force to stabilize Haiti after President Aristide’s resignation. The UN is currently planning for a new UN peacekeeping operation, which will relieve the Multinational Interim Force by June. And it will help the new government under Prime Minister Gerard Latortue conduct elections as soon as security permits.

We do not request contingency funding for future missions in the President’s budget request. Of necessity, the request for each fiscal year is put together long before the time the funds will be needed, and far in advance of world events. We have funding in 2004 for all existing missions. We are working to assure that resources are available for the immediate needs of new peacekeeping missions being undertaken, within the FY 2004 funding available to us. As the Secretary said to this Committee and to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, we will have to make adjustments within our 2005 budget for any new missions, or possibly consider a request in a supplemental.

On the matter of renovating the UN headquarters in New York, the need is growing as the complex ages. Renovations are expected to take five or six years to complete, and construction could start by the end of next year. The question is how to pay for the necessary renovations in a fair and reasonable way, especially in a tight budget environment. We think the funding in the President’s budget request offers a good way forward. It provides for a $1.2 billion loan to finance the full estimated cost up front, so that work can begin and continue without interruption.

Under this loan offer from the United States, the UN would ask each member state to repay a share of the loan over 30 years, based on their regular budget assessment. That means the UN would ask the U.S. to pay 22% of the loan repayment, which starting in the sixth year would amount to about $20 million annually.
Although Secretary-General Kofi Annan had expressed his appreciation for our offer when he met with the President earlier this year, others’ reactions to our proposal have been mixed. We will most certainly keep you informed as to how these discussions proceed.

Let me say a little more now about one of our important priorities -- to achieve more equitable representation of Americans in UN agencies and international organizations. Getting more Americans into these organizations will help keep America’s values and interests at the decision-making table.  We’ve had notable successes this year in getting Americans elected to important bodies. Felice Gaer, our representative to the Committee Against Torture, was re-elected with the highest number of votes of any of nine candidates. Ralph Boyd was elected to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, coming in second of 17. Neither outcome was a “given,” and it required a lot of work in Washington and abroad to build international support for our candidates. Ambassador Mel Levitsky also was elected to the International Narcotics Control Board. These are all exceptional people who will be fair and forthright in the work before them.

We also helped place strong American candidates in key peacekeeping positions. These include William Swing, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative who oversees MONUC and all UN programs in the Congo; Special Representative Jacques Paul Klein, who heads UNMIL, the UN mission in Liberia; and Mark Kroeker, who serves as UNMIL’s Police Commissioner.

But in many agencies with geographic representation formulas, our numbers are still too low. We recently hired a consultant who will assist my staff in this endeavor. We’ve also led a senior-level interagency task force to coordinate and reenergize efforts to identify qualified Americans for professional positions in international organizations. We increased our outreach to those organizations; we have a link to our vacancy website on the USAJobs website; and we raise this issue in meetings with UN officials on a regular basis.

Finally, let me assure you we recognize the President’s budget request is substantial. This Administration believes the benefits we receive from this level of multilateral engagement are worth it. By working with other states in international organizations, we have the best hope of bringing peace and security, prosperity, freedom, and democracy to all the people of the world.

Mr. Chairman, with Ambassador Negroponte and his team in NY, and with our ambassadors to international organizations around the world, we will continue to press the leadership of UN organizations to show good stewardship of our contributions. We will continue pressing them to prioritize and evaluate programs, to improve their effectiveness, and to sunset those that outlive their purpose. We think giving the Secretary-General more authority to use UN resources wisely -- such as letting him shift more positions across departments and organizations as needs arise -- can help. But we are considering every suggestion for reform. We look forward to the report of the Secretary-General’s reform panel later this year.