Issue:

The United States has shortchanged the UN financially, imposed debilitating conditions, and failed to provide political support. The United Nations assesses the US share of peacekeeping mission costs at 30%. In 1995, the US Congress chose to lower peacekeeping support to 25% of overall mission costs without UN General Assembly agreement. In accordance with the accepted level of 25%, the Clinton Administration has requested that
Congress appropriate $846 million for peacekeeping in FY 2001. To date neither the Senate nor the House has agreed to fully fund this amount. Current House and Senate appropriations levels in the Commerce State Justice bill would cut this target of $846 billion by more than 1/3, thereby jeopardizing many of the UN peacekeeping operations.

Action:

Call your Senators and Representatives and urge them to fully fund United Nations peacekeeping in any final budget negotiations on the Commerce-State-Justice bill. Use points from the background information below to strengthen your argument. Capitol Switchboard: 202 224 3121.

Background:

As people of faith, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has repeatedly voted in support of the United Nations and urged the United States to adhere to its financial commitments. The 1995 General Assembly stated that the current challenges of globalization and increasing ethnic and religious strife "require the strengthening of the global institutions within the United Nations system, the building of a global society, and the emergence of an ethos of world community."

United Nations peacekeeping is currently at a crossroads. It may either establish itself as a strong and reliable force for conflict resolution and peace, or it could continue operating without enough resources to fulfill its mandates, leaving it a debilitated force. Whatever becomes of the peacekeeping mission depends largely on the policies of the UN's member states, especially that of the United States.

The US policy of routinely paying its peacekeeping dues late and withholding portions of the money legally owed has weakened the UN. By mid-2000, US arrears totaled $1.36 billion, two-thirds of the amount owed by all UN members. Members of Congress have tried to use the out-standing debt as a means to enforce crippling reforms on the United Nations including: barring the creation of any standing UN military force and requiring the election of US candidates to an advisory UN budgetary panel. The United States Government has repeatedly stood in the way of any effort to create and dispatch peacekeeping missions in a timely manner, because the beneficiaries of these missions did not fall under the definition of United States strategic interests. We must urge the US Government to abide by the international code of conduct that it urges others to respect.

Finally, the lack of funds and the absence of a permanent peacekeeping structure have resulted in a severe mismatch between the expectations for peacekeeping missions and the UN's capacity to fulfill them. In order for the United Nations to continue and improve its peacekeeping missions it must have adequate funding. The US must pay its legally owed UN arrears and meet its assessments on time.

General Assembly Guidance:

The 1995 General Assembly called for the United States Government to "renew its commitments to the United Nations as the major international channel for its foreign policy, consistently and with good faith; assure that its financial obligations are adequately and promptly met, including the payment of back obligations; and work for appropriate reform, by example and with non-coercive advocacy."

If you have questions about the content of this Action Alert, please contact Catherine Gordon at cgordon@ctr.pcusa.org or call the Washington Office at (202) 543-1126.