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Resources updated between Monday, February 13, 2017 and Sunday, February 19, 2017
February 18, 2017
Haley's Comet Article
February 17, 2017
February 16, 2017
February 15, 2017
February 14, 2017
"For the first time in recent memory, the United States is taking a hard look at what it pays the United Nations and eyeing a potential cut that surely will stir up Turtle Bay...
For too long the U.S. has picked up an inordinate share of the United Nations' budget: approximately 22 percent of the regular budget and more than 28 percent of the peacekeeping tab, according to The Heritage Foundation. Based on the latest U.N. budget report, the U.S. paid more than $610 million for 2017; the next highest contributor, Japan, came in at $268 million.
Ultimately the Trump administration is examining 'at least a 40 percent overall decrease' in U.N. contributions, The New York Time reports.
Clearly the days of going along to get along at the U.N. are coming to an apropos end. Here's to fair funding and a better understanding of what the U.S. expects for what it pays."
For the first time in recent memory, US taking a hard look at costs of the UN Article
"MK Tzipi Livni is apparently well regarded at the UN. According to media reports, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called Livni and offered her the position of under-secretary-general.
Guterres's offer to Livni is supposed to be a trade-off. Livni will receive the appointment in exchange for the US canceling its veto of his plan to appoint former Palestinian Authority prime minister Salaam Fayyad to serve as his envoy to Libya.
There are three basic problems with this proposed trade. First there is the problem with Fayyad.
Leaving aside the question of the actual duties of a UN envoy to Libya, the question is why would Fayyad be a good candidate for anything?
Before Fayyad joined the PLO-controlled PA in 2002, he served for six years as the International Monetary Fund's representative to the PA. In that position, Fayyad turned a blind eye to the embezzlement of the donor-financed PA budget to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Year in and year out, Fayyad did nothing to warn donors that the funds that they were providing the PA were being transferred to Swiss bank accounts or otherwise disappearing. In 1997 for instance, Fayyad said nothing as Arafat and his cronies caused $323 million, or 40% of the PA budget, to simply disappear..."
The Livni-Fayyad two-step Article
February 13, 2017
A UN committee charged with vetting NGO applications to gain access to the United Nations wrapped up its latest 10-day session on February 8, 2016 having blocked 221 organizations from obtaining participatory privileges. The so-called UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations is composed of 19 states, most of which have little to no respect for freedom of speech or association and hinder the operation of independent NGOs. Members include, for instance, China, Iran, Russia, Sudan, Turkey, Cuba and Venezuela. Organizations applying for official UN NGO status are often critical of the very states reviewing their applications.
One of two Vice-Chairs of the NGO Committee is Azerbaijan, ranked by Freedom House as having the lowest status on its freedom index. The 2016 Freedom House report finds elections in Azerbaijan are "neither free nor fair," the political environment is "neither pluralistic or competitive," freedom of the press is "severely" restricted as is freedom of assembly, and "the judiciary is corrupt, inefficient, and subservient to the executive branch." "The country's dismal human rights record" includes "harassment, detention, and prosecution of...civil society activists, and their families..." and, moreover, "regressive laws" on NGOs have meant many have been "forced to suspend operations when their bank accounts were frozen, and in some cases, their offices raided and closed." And yet on February 3, 2017 the Committee chose the representative of Azerbaijan to be a Vice-Chair and Committee Rapporteur.
Turkey was chosen as the other Vice-Chair notwithstanding that Turkey is currently engaged in a vicious crackdown of NGOs. According to the 2017 Freedom House report, the situation in Turkey includes "a state of emergency...mass arrests and firings of civil servants, academics, journalists, opposition figures, and other perceived enemies."
NGOs seek UN accreditation or status because it permits them to attend meetings, to circulate documents, hold events inside the UN and occasionally address UN sessions. Meanwhile, the standard operating procedure of the NGO Committee is to defer applications, session after session, with inappropriate, specious or repetitive questions and demands of the applicant NGO. After years of deferrals, Western states find that if they bring applications to a vote, they are simply outvoted in Committee. Decisions can be appealed to the UN's Economic and Social Council, but are normally rubber-stamped. Currently, the United States and Israel are members of the Committee – but repeatedly find themselves in the minority.
As the January-February 2017 session wound down, Committee members wasted nearly half-an-hour patting themselves on the back for, in the words of the Iranian representative, "a job that should be admired and recognized," while the delegations of Cuba, China, and Venezuela expressed their belief that the Committee was "efficient." Minutes later, the Committee ceased reviewing applications, leaving dozens of NGOs that had applications ready for review hanging until the next NGO Committee session four months away.
Here is a sample of the "efficient" and "admirable" work at the latest session of the UN NGO Committee:
Russian Repression
Russia's main targets for deferral were NGOs critical of Russia's human rights record. Among the 23 organizations that Russia prevented from receiving accreditation by deferral was the Swedish NGO "Right Livelihood Award Foundation." This organization had honored both a prominent Russian human rights activist, and a group known as the "White Helmets" that have accused Russia of war crimes in Aleppo.
Russia also blocked Russian NGOs that had been critical of Russia, including:
State represented on the Committee/Committee member | Number of applicant NGOs based in a state on the Committee | Number of applicants from a state on the Committee recommended for accreditation | Percentage of applicant NGOs from a state on the Committee recommended for accreditation | Number of applicants deferred by the NGOs own country's representative |
---|---|---|---|---|
China | 3 | 1 | 33% | 0 |
Greece | 1 | 1 | 100% | 0 |
Guinea | 1 | 1 | 100% | 0 |
India | 41 | 23 | 56% | 17 |
Iran | 4 | 3 | 75% | 0 |
Israel | 3 | 2 | 67% | 0 |
Mauritania | 8 | 5 | 63% | 3 |
Pakistan | 15 | 7 | 47% | 8 |
Russia | 5 | 0 | 0% | 4 |
South Africa | 6 | 1 | 17% | 5 |
Sudan | 1 | 0 | 0% | 0 |
Turkey | 7 | 4 | 57% | 2 |
United States | 84 | 42 | 50% | 0 |
Committee Member | Number of NGOs Deferred by Committee Member | Countries of Origin of NGOs Deferred by Committee Member |
---|---|---|
China | 30 | Australia (1), Belgium (1), Cameroon (1), Egypt (1), Germany,(2), Indonesia (1), Netherlands (1), Norway (1), Republic of Korea (2),Sweden (1), Turkey (1), U.K. (1), U.S. (16) |
Cuba | 37 | Belgium (1), Dominica (1), Egypt (1), France (3), Germany (3), India (1), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (1), Philippines (1), Republic of Korea (2), Somalia (1), Spain (1), Swaziland (1), Sweden (1), Switzerland (3), Togo (1), Trinidad & Tobago (1), U.K. (4), U.S. (9) |
India | 30 | Bangladesh (1), Denmark (1), Egypt (2), Germany (1), India (17), Indonesia (1), Jammu/Kashmir (1), Nepal (1), Netherlands (1), Pakistan (1), U.S. (3) |
Iran | 18 | France (1), Indonesia (1), Israel (1), Morocco (1), Netherlands (1), Qatar (2), Republic of Korea (2), Switzerland (2), Syria (1), U.K. (2), U.S. (4) |
Nicaragua | 19 | Argentina (1), Bangladesh (1), Brazil (1), Cameroon (1), Denmark (1), France (1), Mexico (1), Morocco (1), Nigeria (1), Uganda (1), U.K. (3), U.S. (6) |
Pakistan | 18 | China (2), Egypt (1), India (2), Pakistan (8), Switzerland (1), U.K. (2), U.S. (2) |
Russia | 23 | Belgium (1), Brazil (1), Denmark (1), Egypt (1), Estonia (2), Germany (1), Ghana (1), Indonesia (1), Lithuania (1), Netherlands (1), Norway (1), Republic of Korea (1), Russia (4), Sweden (2), U.K. (2), U.S. (2) |
South Africa | 45 | Albania (1), Cameroon (1), Congo (1), Dominica (1), Egypt (2), Kenya (1), Mexico (1), Netherlands (2), Nigeria (16), Republic of Korea (1), Senegal (1), South Africa (5), Tunisia (2), Uganda (1), U.K. (3), U.S. (6) |
UN Committee Continues Repression of Civil Society Voices Inside the UN Document