US bill ties UN funding to reform

A US congressional committee has drafted a bill that threatens to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the United Nations unless the world body launches wide-ranging reforms, possibly setting the stage for a funding battle like the one that plunged the UN into financial crisis a decade ago.

The “United Nations Reform Act of 2005” targets a panoply of issues that, for years, have troubled critics of the United Nations, particularly US Republicans.

Among other things, it would seek to cut funding for programmes seen as useless and bar human rights violators from serving on UN human rights bodies.