United Nations Finances

With the outcome a foregone conclusion, the House votes today on withholding $244 million in unpaid U.N. dues to pressure the world body to put Washington back on its human rights commission. The expected action escalates a bizarre dispute in which Congress and the United Nations each seems determined to hurt the other by inflicting wounds on themselves.

Diplomats here reacted with dismay Thursday after the House voted to partially freeze payments of American dues to the world body until the U.S. regains a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission. "That is not the best way to solve the problem," said Shen Guofang, China's deputy representative. "In the Human Rights Commission, the members are decided by a democratic election. If you are voted off, it is the choice of the member states. It should have nothing to do with contributions."

The U.N.'s lead refugee agency announced Friday that it will have to cut key aid programs and nearly 1,000 jobs because donor countries have failed for two years in a row to come through with funds they had pledged. Ruud Lubbers, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said that the "painful but absolutely necessary" cuts will be spread among programs around the world in order to minimize their impact.

In the days leading up to a U.N. global conference on combating HIV and AIDS, new donors--public and private--have breathed life into an international trust fund whose fate hung in the balance as recently as last month. A $100-million pledge this week from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and $1 million given earlier this month by Switzerland-based Winterthur insurance group show that even the private sector sees benefit in joining the fight--now that it has become clear that the U.N.

The U.N. agency responsible for preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons is facing a financial crisis and may soon have to cease key operations because the United States and other countries refuse to pay their bills on time, according to senior diplomats here. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which seeks to ensure that no country--including U.S.

CNN founder Ted Turner has offered to make up the $35-million difference between the dues that the United States owes to the United Nations for 2001 and the amount that Congress is willing to pay. Turner's offer is intended to help Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, clinch a deal for a permanent reduction in the U.S. share of the U.N. budget and to bring an end to Washington's chronic debts to the world body, U.S. officials and a Turner representative said.

After a yearlong battle and round-the-clock final negotiations, the General Assembly on Saturday adopted its first major overhaul of U.N. financing in more than two decades, cutting U.S. payments to the world body and shifting most of the shortfall to developing countries with improving economies.

The Senate passed a $12-billion measure that included provisions to pay $812 million in debts to the United Nations and to fund and reorganize the State Department. Conservatives had resisted paying off debts that the U.N. estimated at more than $1 billion. The Senate bill must be meshed with House of Representatives' legislation.

A bill pledging to pay the United Nations most of what the United States owes--once hailed as a grand compromise between Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.)--is now languishing after unsuccessful negotiations between the Senate and the House.

As the Clinton administration struggled to line up support in the U.N. Security Council for tougher diplomatic measures against Iraq, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Friday that the United States cannot expect to use the world organization without "paying its way." Annan described as "unreasonable and regrettable" the failure by Congress to pass a carefully crafted legislative compromise that would have provided $819 million to start paying off Washington's back dues to the U.N.