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.

The 80-page bill, from Illinois Republican Henry Hyde’s House International Relations Committee, is still in an early form and has only recently been distributed to Democrats, who are likely to oppose several elements.

It was sent to a few UN officials last night.

One of the bill’s most controversial proposals will be linking payments to the reforms it spells out. The document stipulates if the reforms are not carried out, congress will withhold 50% of the money the US pays to the UN general budget, taking the money from programmes it deems inefficient and wasteful.