| <html> | |
| <title> - THE UNITED NATIONS: URGENT PROBLEMS THAT NEED CONGRESSIONAL ACTION</title> | |
| <body><pre> | |
| [House Hearing, 112 Congress] | |
| [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] | |
| THE UNITED NATIONS: URGENT PROBLEMS THAT NEED CONGRESSIONAL ACTION | |
| ======================================================================= | |
| BRIEFING | |
| BEFORE THE | |
| COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS | |
| HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES | |
| ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS | |
| FIRST SESSION | |
| __________ | |
| JANUARY 25, 2011 | |
| __________ | |
| Serial No. 112-3 | |
| __________ | |
| Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs | |
| Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ | |
| ______ | |
| U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE | |
| 64-009 WASHINGTON : 2011 | |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, | |
| http://bookstore.gpo.gov. For more information, contact the GPO Customer Contact Center, U.S. Government Printing Office. Phone 202�09512�091800, or 866�09512�091800 (toll-free). E-mail, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="98ffe8f7d8fbedebecf0fdf4e8b6fbf7f5">[email protected]</a>. | |
| COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS | |
| ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman | |
| CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey HOWARD L. BERMAN, California | |
| DAN BURTON, Indiana GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York | |
| ELTON GALLEGLY, California ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American | |
| DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa | |
| DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey | |
| EDWARD R. ROYCE, California BRAD SHERMAN, California | |
| STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York | |
| RON PAUL, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York | |
| MIKE PENCE, Indiana RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri | |
| JOE WILSON, South Carolina ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey | |
| CONNIE MACK, Florida GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia | |
| JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida | |
| MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas DENNIS CARDOZA, California | |
| TED POE, Texas BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky | |
| GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida BRIAN HIGGINS, New York | |
| JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania | |
| BILL JOHNSON, Ohio CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut | |
| DAVID RIVERA, Florida FREDERICA WILSON, Florida | |
| MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania KAREN BASS, California | |
| TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts | |
| TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island | |
| JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina | |
| ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York | |
| RENEE ELLMERS, North Carolina | |
| VACANT | |
| Yleem D.S. Poblete, Staff Director | |
| Richard J. Kessler, Democratic Staff Director | |
| C O N T E N T S | |
| ---------- | |
| Page | |
| BRIEFERS | |
| Mr. Brett Schaefer, Jay Kingham fellow in International | |
| Regulatory Affairs, Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, the | |
| Heritage Foundation............................................ 10 | |
| Ms. Claudia Rosett, journalist-in-residence, Foundation for | |
| Defense of Democracies......................................... 32 | |
| Mr. Hillel C. Neuer, executive director, UN Watch................ 44 | |
| Mr. Peter Yeo, vice president for public policy and public | |
| affairs, United Nations Foundation and executive director, | |
| Better World Campaign.......................................... 53 | |
| Mr. Mark Quarterman, senior adviser and director, Program on | |
| Crisis, Conflict, and Cooperation, Center for Strategic and | |
| International Studies.......................................... 59 | |
| Mr. Robert Appleton, former chairman, United Nations Procurement | |
| Task Force..................................................... 68 | |
| LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE BRIEFING | |
| The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress | |
| from the State of Florida, and chairman, Committee on Foreign | |
| Affairs: Prepared statement.................................... 4 | |
| Mr. Brett Schaefer: Prepared statement........................... 12 | |
| Ms. Claudia Rosett: Prepared statement........................... 34 | |
| Mr. Hillel C. Neuer: Prepared statement.......................... 46 | |
| Mr. Peter Yeo: Prepared statement................................ 55 | |
| Mr. Mark Quarterman: Prepared statement.......................... 61 | |
| Mr. Robert Appleton: Prepared statement.......................... 70 | |
| APPENDIX | |
| Briefing notice.................................................. 102 | |
| Briefing minutes................................................. 103 | |
| THE UNITED NATIONS: URGENT PROBLEMS THAT NEED CONGRESSIONAL ACTION | |
| ---------- | |
| TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2011 | |
| House of Representatives, | |
| Committee on Foreign Affairs, | |
| Washington, DC. | |
| The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 o'clock a.m., | |
| in room 2272 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jean Schmidt | |
| (acting chairman of the committee) presiding. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. I want to call this briefing to order. This | |
| briefing of the Committee on Foreign Affairs will come to order | |
| at 10:06 in the morning. Unfortunately, our chairwoman, Ileana | |
| Ros-Lehtinen, is unable to be in Washington this week. She is | |
| at her family's side. Her mother is in failing health from | |
| complications with Alzheimer's and so I would ask that we all | |
| remember she and her mother and her family in this very | |
| troubled time. It's very difficult to lose a loved one, | |
| especially a parent. So Ileana asked me to chair this briefing | |
| and I was very gracious and happy to accept. | |
| I will now recognize myself for 7 minutes to read the | |
| chairman's opening statement, which should be considered | |
| attributable to her. As I said, this is her statement. | |
| ``As I said at this committee's last hearing on | |
| United Nations reform, `With significant leadership by | |
| the United States, the United Nations was founded on | |
| high ideals. The pursuit of international peace and | |
| development, and the promotion of basic human rights | |
| are core, historic concerns of the American people. At | |
| its best, the U.N. can play an important role in | |
| promoting U.S. interests and international security, | |
| but reality hasn't matched the ideals.' | |
| ``Accordingly, U.S. policy on the United Nations | |
| should be based on three fundamental questions: Are we | |
| advancing American interests? Are we upholding American | |
| values? And are we being responsible stewards of | |
| American taxpayer dollars? | |
| ``Unfortunately, right now, the answer to all three | |
| questions is `No.' | |
| ``Here's some simple math: With no strings attached, | |
| we pay all contributions that the United Nations | |
| assesses to us--22 percent of their annual budget--plus | |
| billions more every year. According to the OMB, in | |
| Fiscal Year 2009, the U.S. contributed well over $6 | |
| billion to the U.N.--at a time of high unemployment, | |
| skyrocketing deficits, crushing debt, and other great | |
| economic and fiscal challenges to our nation. | |
| ``What have we gotten in return from the U.N.? Here | |
| are a few examples. | |
| ``The U.N. Development Program fired a whistle-blower | |
| who revealed that the United Nations Development | |
| Program's office in North Korea was not being managed | |
| properly, and was being exploited by Kim Jong Il's | |
| regime. | |
| ``In 2008, a Senate subcommittee found that: The U.N. | |
| Development Program's local staff was selected by the | |
| regime, and UNDP paid staff salaries directly to the | |
| regime--in foreign currency--with no way to know the | |
| funds weren't being diverted to enrich the regime; UNDP | |
| prevented proper oversight and undermined whistleblower | |
| protections by limiting access to its audits and | |
| refusing to submit to the U.N. Ethics Office's | |
| jurisdiction; the regime used its relationship with | |
| UNDP to move money outside North Korea; and UNDP | |
| transferred funds to a company tied to an entity | |
| designated by the U.S. as North Korea's financial agent | |
| for weapons sales. | |
| ``The UNDP briefly pulled out of North Korea, but now | |
| they're back, and this time they can select staff from | |
| a list of three candidates hand-picked by the regime, | |
| not just one candidate. | |
| ``That's what passes for reform at the U.N. | |
| ``U.S. taxpayers are also paying over one-fifth of | |
| the bills for the U.N.'s anti-Israel activities, | |
| including the U.N. Human Rights Council, a rogues' | |
| gallery dominated by human rights violators who use it | |
| to ignore real abuses and instead attack democratic | |
| Israel relentlessly. The council was also the | |
| fountainhead for the infamous Durban Two conference and | |
| the Goldstone Report. | |
| ``One more example: An independent Procurement Task | |
| Force uncovered cases of corruption tainting hundreds | |
| of millions of dollars in U.N. contracts. In response, | |
| the U.N. shut down the Task Force. When the head of the | |
| U.N.'s oversight office tried to hire the chairman of | |
| the task force, former U.S. prosecutor Robert Appleton, | |
| as the top investigator, the U.N. Secretary-General | |
| blocked it. | |
| ``Well, the U.N. may not want him, but we're pleased | |
| to have Mr. Appleton here today. | |
| ``Ironically, the U.N.'s current chief investigator-- | |
| who has reportedly failed to pursue cases--is now under | |
| investigation himself for retaliating against whistle- | |
| blowers! | |
| ``Ambassador Susan Rice says that the U.S. approach | |
| to the U.N. is, `We pay our bills. We push for real | |
| reform.' Instead, we should be conditioning our | |
| contributions on `reform first, pay later.' | |
| ``In the past, Congress has gone along by willingly | |
| paying what successive administrations asked for-- | |
| without enough oversight. This is one of the first true | |
| U.N. reform hearings held by this committee in almost 4 | |
| years, but it won't be the last. | |
| ``Right now, the vast majority of countries at the | |
| U.N. General Assembly pay next to nothing in assessed | |
| contributions, creating a perverse incentive because | |
| those who make decisions don't have to pay the bills. | |
| So I,'' meaning Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, ``am going to | |
| reintroduce legislation that conditions our | |
| contributions--our strongest leverage--on real, | |
| sweeping reform, including moving the U.N. regular | |
| budget to a voluntary funding basis. That way, U.S. | |
| taxpayers can pay for the U.N. programs and activities | |
| that advance our interests and values, and if other | |
| countries want different things to be funded, they can | |
| pay for it themselves. | |
| ``This will encourage competition, competence, and | |
| effectiveness. | |
| ``The voluntary model works for UNICEF and many other | |
| U.N. agencies, and it can work for the U.N. as a whole. | |
| ``One more point: Some of the U.N.'s defenders like | |
| to cite some good U.N. activities to gain support for | |
| funding bad ones. However, we're not here to play | |
| `Let's Make a Deal' with hard-earned U.S. taxpayer | |
| dollars. Each U.N. office, activity, program, and sub- | |
| program, country by country and function by function, | |
| must be justified on its own merits. | |
| ``UNICEF programs to help starving children cannot | |
| excuse the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's | |
| having members of Hamas on its payroll. The World | |
| Health Organization's vaccination programs cannot | |
| excuse the Human Rights Council's biased actions. | |
| ``My colleagues, reforming the U.N. should not be a | |
| Republican or Democrat issue. It is in the interest of | |
| all Americans. And so I hope and trust that U.N. reform | |
| efforts will be strongly bipartisan.'' | |
| That concludes the chairwoman's opening remarks. Following | |
| the opening remarks by our ranking member, we will follow the | |
| protocol of other briefings in this Congress and proceed | |
| directly to oral statements by our presenters. | |
| I am now pleased to recognize our distinguished ranking | |
| member, Mr. Berman, for his opening remarks. | |
| [The prepared statement of Chairman Ros-Lehtinen follows:] | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| Mr. Berman. Madam Chairwoman, thank you very much for | |
| yielding me this time and initially let me say that I think all | |
| of us, our thoughts and our prayers are with Ileana as she is | |
| by her mother's side at this very difficult time and understand | |
| why she's not here. | |
| Madam Chairwoman, the flaws, shortcomings, and outrages of | |
| the United Nations, both past and present, are numerous and | |
| sometimes flagrant. These include the Human Rights Council's | |
| obsession with and biased treatment of Israel. As the | |
| chairwoman pointed out, the membership, a rogue's gallery of | |
| human rights abusers who have worked to highjack that | |
| organization's agenda; the anti-Israel vitriol spewed from | |
| innumerable U.N. platforms, led by the Committee on the | |
| Exercise of Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; the | |
| oil for food scandal; sexual violence perpetrated by U.N. | |
| peacekeepers; the unnecessarily high vacancy rates and other | |
| problems at the Office of Internal Oversight Services; and the | |
| overlapping jurisdiction of agencies, the duplications of | |
| services, and inefficient procurement practices of the U.N. as | |
| a whole | |
| And like almost all Americans, I'm repelled by these | |
| examples of corruption, mismanagement, and bias. But there is | |
| another side to the U.N. ledger and it's wrong to ignore it. | |
| The United Nations often plays an essential role in supporting | |
| American foreign policy and national security interests. From | |
| UNDP's work organizing the recent referendum in South Sudan to | |
| the wonderful work of the UNHCR and its efforts to protect and | |
| resettle refugees to the Security Counsel resolutions imposing | |
| sanctions on Iran, the U.N. acts as a force multiplier for U.S. | |
| interests. | |
| During the Bush administration, we saw a significant rise | |
| in U.N. peacekeeping costs. Why? Because President Bush | |
| understood that having blue helmets on the ground reduced or | |
| eliminated the need for U.S. troops. The U.N. peacekeeping | |
| presence in Haiti is perhaps the clearest example of how the | |
| U.N. systems advances our own interests at a far lower cost | |
| than direct U.S. intervention. | |
| In an analysis of that U.N. force, the Government | |
| Accountability Office concluded it would cost twice as much for | |
| the United States to carry out a similar peacekeeping mission | |
| using our own troops. So what should we do about the many | |
| shortcomings we've referenced? I strongly believe that the best | |
| way to successfully achieve the improvements that are needed is | |
| to work with our allies to constructively engage the U.N. on a | |
| reform agenda. Experience has shown that this strategy is much | |
| more effective than withholding our dues. Not only did previous | |
| attempts to force us into arrears that the U.N. failed to | |
| achieve the significant reforms that have taken place in the | |
| last few years, but they severely weakened our diplomatic | |
| standing. Had we been in such deep arrears last year, does | |
| anyone honestly think it would not have impeded our ability to | |
| get an additional round of Iran sanctions through the Security | |
| Council? | |
| The many reform efforts currently underway in New York, | |
| Geneva, and elsewhere in the U.N. system are a testament to the | |
| strategy developed under both the Bush and Obama | |
| administrations to work with the U.N. to enact common sense | |
| reforms, many of which were laid out in a 2005 report co- | |
| authored by former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator George | |
| Mitchell. The fruits of the Gingrich-Mitchell work were clearly | |
| evident with the establishment of the U.N. Ethics Office 4 | |
| years ago. | |
| The same can be said about the creation of an independent | |
| Audit Advisory Committee, a body now headed by former U.S. | |
| Comptroller General David Walker, to review the activities of | |
| the Office of International Oversight Services and the U.N. | |
| Board of Auditors. | |
| The recent creation of the U.N. Woman Organization and the | |
| U.N.'s Delivering as One Pilot Initiative have demonstrated the | |
| U.N.'s determination to remedy the fragmentation and | |
| organizational incoherence that have plagued parts of the U.N. | |
| system and has resulted in overlapping mandates, lack of | |
| coordination, waste of resources. | |
| Much more remains to be done to develop a fully transparent | |
| and financially accountable budget process. Strengthen program | |
| monitoring and evaluation, streamline the U.N. Secretariat, | |
| promote a strong culture of ethics and accountability, and | |
| encourage U.N. agencies to work together to achieve greater | |
| cost savings. But make no mistake about it, there has been | |
| progress on the reform front. | |
| I would also like to take a moment to further discuss the | |
| issue of the U.N. Human Rights Council. As we all know, the | |
| council was created to replace the thoroughly discredited Human | |
| Rights Commission. Unfortunately, the previous administration | |
| chose not to constructively engage the council in its early | |
| days, thus ceding the organization to the same block of nations | |
| who take advantage of every opportunity to attack and to | |
| delegitimize Israel in international fora. I supported the | |
| Obama administration's decision to join the council in the | |
| hopes of reforming the organization and transforming it into a | |
| serious voice on human rights in the U.N. system. | |
| In less than 2 years, progress has been made on the | |
| council. The U.S. has used its voice as the leading global | |
| advocate for human rights to push strong council action on a | |
| number of significant human rights abuses from the ethnic | |
| violence in Kyrgyzstan to the recent standoff in Ivory Coast. | |
| And the Obama administration deserves significant credit for | |
| its successful diplomatic campaign to deny Iran a seat on the | |
| council. | |
| Notwithstanding these important accomplishments, the anti- | |
| Israel vitriol that all too often emanates from the council and | |
| the inclusion of serious human rights violators among the | |
| council's membership remains a deep stain on the U.N.'s | |
| reputation. | |
| Madam Chairwoman, in closing, let me just say again that I | |
| agree with you that the U.N. needs significant reforms. Where I | |
| think we differ in our approach is the best way to achieve | |
| those reforms. Based on our experience in recent years, I would | |
| argue that we have a much greater chance of success if we work | |
| inside the U.N. with like-minded nations to achieve the goals | |
| that I think both sides on this committee and in our Congress | |
| share. | |
| With that, I yield back my remaining time. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you very much, Congressman Berman. The | |
| chair is pleased to welcome our six presenters. Mr. Brett | |
| Schaefer is the Jay Kingham fellow in International Regulatory | |
| Affairs at the Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center | |
| for Freedom, focusing primarily on the U.N. He previously | |
| served at the Pentagon as an assistant for International | |
| Criminal Court Policy from March 2003 to March 2004. | |
| Ms. Claudia Rosett is a journalist-in-residence with the | |
| Foundation for Defense of Democracies. She previously worked | |
| for 18 years at the Wall Street Journal. | |
| Mr. Hillel Neuer is an international lawyer and the | |
| executive director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO in Geneva. | |
| He previously practiced commercial and civil rights litigation | |
| in New York and served as a law clerk for an Israeli Supreme | |
| Court Justice. | |
| We are pleased to welcome Mr. Peter Yeo back to the | |
| committee. He is currently the vice president for public policy | |
| and public affairs at the United Nations Foundation and | |
| executive director of the Foundation's Better World Campaign. | |
| Mr. Yeo previously served for 10 years as the deputy staff | |
| director on the committee's Democratic staff, first for ranking | |
| member Sam Gejdenson, then for our late chairman, Tom Lantos, | |
| and then for our current ranking member, Mr. Berman, while he | |
| was chairman. | |
| Another former Foreign Affairs Committee alum will brief us | |
| today, Mr. Mark Quarterman. He is currently senior adviser and | |
| director of the Program on Crisis, Conflict, and Cooperation at | |
| the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Mr. | |
| Quarterman previously served at the U.N. in a number of | |
| capacities for almost 12 years, including as chief of staff to | |
| the U.N. Commission on Inquiry into the assassination of the | |
| former Prime Minister of Pakistan and in the U.N.'s Office of | |
| Legal Affairs and Department of Political Affairs. Before that, | |
| Mr. Quarterman served as a staff member for our committee's | |
| Africa Subcommittee and as a program office at the Ford | |
| Foundation for South Africa and Namibia. | |
| Last but not least, Mr. Robert Appleton served as the | |
| chairman of the United Nations Procurement Task Force, a | |
| specially-created anti-corruption unit that conducted hundreds | |
| of investigations of fraud and corruption in the U.N. He also | |
| served as a special counsel and deputy chief legal counsel to | |
| the Independent Inquiry Committee investigation into the U.N. | |
| Oil-for-Food Programme, also known as the Volcker Committee. | |
| More recently, he was selected to serve as the lead | |
| investigator for the U.N.'s Office of Internal Oversight | |
| Services, but his selection was not approved, and we'll no | |
| doubt hear more about that later. Mr. Appleton served for about | |
| 13 years as an assistant United States attorney in the District | |
| of Connecticut, prosecuting a wide range of national and | |
| international Federal criminal offenses. Mr. Appleton presently | |
| serves as director of investigations and senior legal counsel | |
| in the Office of the Inspector General in the Global Fund to | |
| Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Geneva. Mr. Appleton is | |
| presenting his remarks in his personal capacity. | |
| Again, the chair thanks all of our briefers and we remind | |
| them to keep their respective oral summaries to no more than 5 | |
| minutes each, and having watched Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for one time, | |
| I know she's adamant about the 5 minute rule. So I might give | |
| you a few seconds over, but don't test the waters. | |
| Anyway, thank you all for coming and right now, I believe, | |
| Mr. Schaefer, we will hear your testimony. | |
| STATEMENT OF MR. BRETT SCHAEFER, JAY KINGHAM FELLOW IN | |
| INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY AFFAIRS, MARGARET THATCHER CENTER FOR | |
| FREEDOM, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION | |
| Mr. Schaefer. I would like to thank the committee for | |
| inviting me to today's briefing. | |
| The past six decades have seen dozens of reform proposals | |
| both from inside the United Nations and outside. For the most | |
| part, these reforms have been ignored, cosmetic, watered down | |
| or defeated outright. As a result, the U.N. and many of its | |
| affiliated organizations remain hindered by outdated or | |
| duplicative mandates and missions, poor management practices, | |
| ineffectual oversight, and a general lack of accountability. | |
| A key reason for the lack of reform in the U.N. is the | |
| practice of granting equal voting rights to each nation over | |
| budgetary management issues, even though they have vastly | |
| different financial contributions. The bulk of U.N. member | |
| states simply do not pay enough to the U.N. for mismanagement, | |
| corruption, or inefficiency to concern them. For instance, | |
| Sierra Leone is assessed at 0.001 percent of the U.N. regular | |
| budget and 0.0001 percent of the peacekeeping budget. The U.S., | |
| by contrast, is assessed 22 percent and 27.14 percent, | |
| respectively. Therefore, while Sierra Leone and the dozens of | |
| other organizations with similar assessments pay less than | |
| $35,000 per year to the U.N. in these budgets, the United | |
| States pays billions of dollars. | |
| With this in mind, it's hardly surprising that the United | |
| States cares deeply about how the U.N. is managed and how those | |
| funds are used, but most countries simply don't care very much | |
| about it. Yet, these are the countries that possess most of the | |
| votes. The combined assessments of the 128 least-assessed | |
| countries to the United Nations, enough to pass those budgets, | |
| totals less than 1 percent of the U.N. regular budget and less | |
| than one third of 1 percent to the U.N. peacekeeping budget. | |
| These countries, combined with influential voting blocks can | |
| and do block U.S. attempts to implement reforms and curtail | |
| budgets. The U.S. can't fix this problem with diplomacy alone. | |
| Moreover, while American administrations are often | |
| interested in pressing for reform, the reform agenda is | |
| frequently abandoned in favor of short-term political | |
| objectives. That is why the State Department is rarely | |
| aggressive in pressing for reform at the U.N. | |
| The reluctance to press for U.N. reform occurs under most | |
| administrations, but it has been particularly apparent over the | |
| past 2 years under the Obama administration as it sought to | |
| distance itself from the previous administration's policies at | |
| the U.N. Criticism of the U.N. is rarely uttered by Obama | |
| administration officials and its U.N. reform agenda is notable | |
| only for its lack of detail and enthusiasm. | |
| Luckily, U.N. reform doesn't necessarily require an eager | |
| administration. Past successful U.N. reform efforts have | |
| typically shared one thing in common, congressional involvement | |
| backed by the threat of financial withholding. Congressional | |
| intervention led to U.S. budgetary restraint in the 1980s and | |
| the 1990s. It led the U.N. to create the Office of Internal | |
| Oversight Services, the first Inspector General equivalent in | |
| the history of the United Nations. And it led the U.N. to | |
| reduce U.S. assessments earlier this decade. | |
| Regrettably, Congress has neglected its oversight role in | |
| recent years. Only a handful of U.N. oversight hearings have | |
| been held and U.N. reform legislation has not been seriously | |
| considered. Without Congress spurring action, the U.N. has been | |
| free to disregard calls for reform. | |
| Meanwhile, U.S. contributions are at an all-time high. | |
| Congressional scrutiny is overdue. | |
| Let me finish my statement by highlighting some reforms | |
| that I think deserve particular attention. First, the | |
| discrepancy between obligations and decision making is perhaps | |
| the greatest impediment to U.N. reform. The U.S. unsuccessfully | |
| pressed for weighted voting in the 1980s and got consensus | |
| voting on budgetary issues as a compromise. That compromise has | |
| since been shattered and the U.N. budget has been approved over | |
| U.S. objections. Congress needs to revisit the issue and | |
| consider options to increase the influence of major | |
| contributors over the U.N. budget. | |
| Second, the U.N. regular budget has grown even faster than | |
| the U.S. budget over the past decade. A few things could be | |
| done to curtail that growth and streamline the budget. 1) | |
| reestablishing the zero nominal growth policy for the United | |
| States to the U.N. regular budget which would prevent further | |
| increases in the future and lead to a gradual reduction through | |
| inflation. 2) sunsetting all U.N. mandates and revitalizing the | |
| mandate review. Nearly all U.N. mandates remain unreviewed, but | |
| if the preliminary reports are indicative, up to half of all | |
| U.N. mandates could be outdated or irrelevant. | |
| Finally, the Human Rights Council continues to disappoint. | |
| The key problem with the council is the membership. Congress | |
| should withhold U.S. funding to the council until credible and | |
| serious membership standards are adopted, including forcing | |
| regional groupings to provide competitive slates for elections. | |
| In conclusion, if the United States does not press this | |
| issue and back diplomatic carrots with financial sticks, U.N. | |
| reform will continue to be sound and fury with little | |
| substance. The U.N. is patient. It will publish reports and | |
| promise reforms. Action will always be imminent but rarely | |
| realized. Nothing perseveres like bureaucratic inertia. I have | |
| a whole stack of U.N. reports on my desk to prove the point | |
| that U.N. reform is always promised, but very rarely | |
| implemented. | |
| If Congress wants U.N. reform, it must heed the history and | |
| demand quick action and link specific reforms to financial | |
| withholding. The U.N. may have five official languages, but the | |
| bottom line speaks loudest. | |
| Thank you very much and I look forward to your questions. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Schaefer follows:] | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you very much. You are right on time. | |
| Next we have Ms. Claudia Rosett, journalist-in-residence at the | |
| Foundation for Defense of Democracies. We'll begin when you | |
| begin. | |
| STATEMENT OF MS. CLAUDIA ROSETT, JOURNALIST-IN-RESIDENCE, | |
| FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES | |
| Ms. Rosett. I'm ready to begin. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. | |
| Ms. Rosett. My thanks to the committee for the chance to be | |
| here today. | |
| The United Nations is an enormous, opaque, labyrinthine, | |
| and a collective in which the United States, as Brett has just | |
| described, basically sustains the system. The contributions | |
| that the United States make are more than the sum of their | |
| parts. It's not just roughly one quarter of the system-wide | |
| budget, whatever that is. It's also U.S. credibility, gravitas, | |
| the headquarters, things that basically mean the U.S. provides, | |
| in effect, the fixed costs, others hop a ride. And this is a | |
| system which invites waste, fraud, and abuse. | |
| But what I'd like to highlight here today is that the | |
| problem goes well beyond simple theft or waste. The U.N. is not | |
| like a pilfering clerk. It's an organization unlike many which | |
| operates across borders, with immunities, moving large amounts | |
| of goods, personnel, services, and so on. It's basically immune | |
| to censure. It's really under no jurisdiction of local law. | |
| This is a system that invites exploitation and what we have | |
| seen over the years is that the worst of the worst, regimes | |
| like the former regime in Iraq, like North Korea today, become | |
| very good at exploiting this. The problem I would like to | |
| describe is the United States is sustaining a system in which a | |
| lot of harm can be done even without drawing directly on U.S. | |
| money. That, for instance, was Oil-for-Food. | |
| Oil-for-Food did not take U.S. tax dollars. It ran on Iraqi | |
| oil money. But the U.N. via Oil-for-Food, having put sanctions | |
| on Iraq then provided cover and sustained a program which | |
| became the world-wide bonanza of graft. It ended up corrupting | |
| the U.N. itself and corruption thousands--companies around the | |
| world, payments to suicide bombers, purchase of convention | |
| weapons, if not WMD. And the head of the program was alleged, | |
| in the end, to have been on the take for $147,000, peanuts by | |
| U.N. standards, but enough if it's somebody who's running a | |
| significant U.N. program so that it has at least the effect | |
| that he will not blow the whistle. | |
| How do you find out what's going on inside the U.N. with | |
| that kind of leverage? In my experience, it almost always | |
| requires some kind of very energetic investigation. The U.N. | |
| does not readily give information up. In Oil-for-Food, we | |
| discovered a lot because documents spilled out of Baghdad after | |
| the fall of Saddam. In North Korea, it took very energetic | |
| efforts over strenuous objections from the U.N. Development | |
| Program by the then Ambassador for Reform, U.N. Management and | |
| Reform at the U.N., Mark Wallace, who really went to the mat | |
| pointing out troubles, and when this lone whistleblower came | |
| forward who was then fired. And in the end what emerged was | |
| just this incredible nest of malfeasance. | |
| I've described it in my written statement, but you had and | |
| Chairman Schmidt described it in her opening remarks. You had | |
| North Korean employees handling the checkbook and the accounts | |
| in Pyongyang. You had transfers on behalf of other agencies via | |
| an entity tied to North Korean proliferation. You had the | |
| import of dual-use items into North Korea. There's an exhibit | |
| in the back of my written testimony showing you how the | |
| spectrometers, global mapping systems, satellite receiving | |
| stations imported by the U.N. Development Program into North | |
| Korea could have been used to make missiles which is one of | |
| North Korea's big proliferation businesses. | |
| When this all surfaced, UNDP has also been involved in a | |
| Burmese currency fiddle which tells us much. I'm happy to | |
| answer questions on that. It was not broken by the U.N., it was | |
| broken by a blogger who covers the U.N., Matthew Russell Lee. | |
| When the Cash-for-Kim scandal broke in North Korea, | |
| Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon promised a system-wide inquiry, | |
| independent inquiry. He backed off that within a week. It has | |
| never been held. It was a very good idea. As you just heard, | |
| the U.N. issues endless promises of reform. I've made some | |
| recommendations about that in the back. The Secretary-General | |
| was just boasting last week that he actually requires senior | |
| officials now at the U.N. to disclose their financial | |
| information. I have two exhibits in the back of my written | |
| statement which show you what that amounts to. One of them is a | |
| sheet in which you can check a box showing that you choose not | |
| to disclose anything at all. The other is Ban Ki-Moon's | |
| statement which consists of 18 words, nine of which are | |
| Republic of Korea with no price at all. That's public | |
| disclosure. | |
| And I would finally recommend that if there is to be a | |
| debate over withholding funds from the United Nations as a way | |
| of imposing leverage, it would be very useful to keep in mind | |
| that this is an institution which years ago began to regard $1 | |
| billion as a rounding error. | |
| Thank you very much and I would be happy to answer your | |
| questions. | |
| [The prepared statement of Ms. Rosett follows:] | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| Mr. Smith [presiding]. Thank you very much. Before going to | |
| Mr. Neuer, I just want to note that Walker Roberts is here--we | |
| have a number of former staffers--who was a top staffer for | |
| Chairman Henry Hyde, and Mark Tavlarides, who was chief of | |
| staff for the Human Rights Committee back in the 1980s and I'm | |
| sure there are a few others. | |
| Mr. Berman. They're all here to hear Peter. | |
| Mr. Smith. Exactly. We'll go to Mr. Neuer now. | |
| STATEMENT OF MR. HILLEL C. NEUER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UN WATCH | |
| Mr. Neuer. Distinguished members of the committee, thank | |
| you for inviting me here today. The urgent problem that I was | |
| to address concerns the state of human rights at the United | |
| Nations. The U.N. Human Rights Council this year undergoes a | |
| review of its first 5 years of work. How has it performed? | |
| Let's first recall the history. In 2005, then U.N. | |
| Secretary-General Kofi Annan called to scrap the old Human | |
| Rights Commission. He explained why. Countries had joined ``not | |
| to strengthen human rights, but to protect themselves against | |
| criticism or to criticize others.'' The Commission was plagued | |
| by politicization and selectivity. It suffered from declining | |
| professionalism and a credibility deficit which ``cast a shadow | |
| upon the reputation of the U.N. system as a whole.'' | |
| To remedy these fatal flaws the U.N. created the council 1 | |
| year later. The 2006 resolution promised a membership committed | |
| to human rights, that would respond to severe abuses, including | |
| by urgent sessions. Its work would be impartial and | |
| nonselective. Today, 5 years later, we ask, Has the council | |
| redressed the shortcomings of its predecessor? Has it lived up | |
| to its promise? | |
| Let us consider first the council's current members. They | |
| include Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, and Saudi | |
| Arabia. The newest member is Libya under the dictatorship of | |
| Colonel Qaddafi. As measured by Freedom House, 57 percent of | |
| the members fail to meet basic democracy standards. | |
| Mr. Chairman, imagine a jury that includes murderers and | |
| rapists or a police force, run in large part by suspected | |
| murderers and rapists who are determined to stymie | |
| investigation of their crimes. That was said by Kenneth Roth of | |
| Human Rights Watch in 2001, but the analogy applies even more | |
| today. | |
| Second, let's look at the council's response over the past | |
| 5 years to the world's worst human rights violations. Here's | |
| what we find. For the one fifth of the world's population | |
| living in China where millions have suffered gross and | |
| systematic repression, for the minority Uighur who have been | |
| massacred, the Tibetans killed, the council adopted not a | |
| single resolution. Its response was silence. For the peaceful, | |
| civic activists, bloggers and dissidents in Cuba, who are | |
| beaten or languish in prison, no resolutions. For the victims | |
| of Iran, massacred by their own government while the Human | |
| Rights Council was actually in session, subjected to torture | |
| rape, and execution, no action. For the women of Saudi Arabia | |
| subjugated, the rape victims, sentenced to lashes, the council | |
| looked away. For the people of Zimbabwe who suffer under the | |
| jackboot of the Mugabe regime, no resolutions. | |
| Mr. Chairman, apart from a handful of exceptions, the U.N. | |
| Human Rights Council in the 5 years of its existence has | |
| systematically turned a blind eye to the world's worst abuses. | |
| It has failed the victims most in need. | |
| You may ask then, What does it do with its time? I will | |
| tell you. To an astonishing degree, the council has reserved | |
| its moral outrage for demonizing one single country, Israel, | |
| the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. | |
| Consider one, in total, the council has adopted some 50 | |
| resolutions condemning countries, of these 35 have been on | |
| Israel, i.e., 70 percent. All have been one-sided condemnations | |
| that grant impunity to Hamas and Hezbollah terror and to their | |
| state sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran. | |
| Two, built into the council's permanent agenda is a special | |
| item on Israel. No other country is singled out in this | |
| fashion. | |
| Three, the council's machinery of fact-finding missions | |
| exist almost solely to attack Israel. The most notorious | |
| example is the Goldstone Report, a travesty of justice that | |
| excoriated Israel and exonerated Hamas. This was not surprising | |
| given that the mission operated according to a prejudicial | |
| mandate, a predetermined verdict, and with members like | |
| Christine Chinkin, who declared Israel guilty in advance. | |
| Four, out of ten special sessions that criticize countries, | |
| six were on Israel, four for the rest of the world combined. | |
| Five, the council has a permanent investigator, Richard | |
| Falk, mandated solely to report on ``Israel's violations of the | |
| principles of international law.'' Mr. Falk also happens to be | |
| one of the leading proponents in this country of the conspiracy | |
| theory that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job | |
| orchestrated by the U.S. Government. Now in response to our | |
| protest last week, I'm pleased to report that yesterday the | |
| Secretary-General sent me a letter stating that he condemns the | |
| preposterous remarks of Mr. Falk and regards him as an affront | |
| to the memory of the 3,000 victims that perished that day. We | |
| call on Mr. Ban Ki-Moon to take action to remove Mr. Falk | |
| immediately. | |
| Mr. Chairman, the promises of the council's founding | |
| resolution improved membership, action for victims, an end to | |
| politicization and selectivity have not been kept. On the | |
| contrary, if we consider the fatal flaws identified by Kofi | |
| Annan in the old Commission, every single one applies equally | |
| today to the new council. | |
| Thank you. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Neuer follows:] | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| Mr. Smith. Mr. Neuer, thank you very much for your | |
| testimony and having worked with you, thank you for your | |
| leadership at the U.N. | |
| I'd like to now recognize Mr. Yeo. | |
| STATEMENT OF MR. PETER YEO, VICE PRESIDENT FOR PUBLIC POLICY | |
| AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION AND EXECUTIVE | |
| DIRECTOR, BETTER WORLD CAMPAIGN | |
| Mr. Yeo. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ranking Member | |
| Berman, for inviting me to appear before the committee today. | |
| Right now, across the globe, the U.N. stands by America as | |
| we struggle for democracy, human rights, and world prosperity. | |
| We need the U.N. to run smoothly because we have a stake in | |
| where the U.N. is headed. We need the U.N. to continue, even | |
| hurry, on its current course straight toward a more stable and | |
| prosperous world that serves America's strategic, economic, | |
| humanitarian, and political interests. | |
| As we meet here today, votes in Sudan are being counted to | |
| determine whether South Sudan should secede. America has | |
| strongly backed this process with enormous diplomatic and | |
| financial contribution and in that, we are joined by the United | |
| Nations which has allocated money, more than 10,000 U.N. | |
| workers, peacekeepers, and volunteers, to support the | |
| referendum. The Cote d'Ivoire, where the United States has long | |
| sought peace and stability, the entire U.N. system holds fast | |
| for democracy and against genocide. | |
| The Security Council has called on the nation's defeated | |
| President to recognize the results of the referendum and U.N. | |
| peacekeepers now stand as the sole line of protection for Cote | |
| d'Ivoire's democratically-elected President. | |
| The U.N. has partnered with America to battle the nuclear | |
| threat Iran poses. Just last summer, the U.N. Security Council | |
| imposed its toughest ever sanctions on Iran. Defense Secretary | |
| Gates heaped praised on the U.N. resolution and EU and others | |
| have joined America in putting in place tough sanctions that | |
| are having an economic impact on the Iranian Government. | |
| In Afghanistan, the U.N. has joined American forces to | |
| promote security and battle the rise of extremist forces. The | |
| U.N. provided support for Afghanistan's independent electoral | |
| authorities and has facilitated the removal of land mines and | |
| weapons, making Afghanistan safer for civilians and American | |
| forces. | |
| And not far from our shores, the U.N. battles mightily to | |
| stabilize, reconstruct earthquake-shattered Haiti, a country | |
| with close ties to America. U.N. peacekeepers patrol the | |
| streets, provide security to many displaced Haitians, train | |
| Haitian police, and feed nearly 2 million Haitians a day. | |
| And right here at home, the U.N. is promoting American | |
| economic interests in creating jobs. For every dollar invested | |
| by the U.S. in the U.N., American firms receive approximately | |
| $1.50 in U.N. contracts and other benefits. | |
| As we've heard from the witnesses who preceded me, the U.N. | |
| is not a perfect institution, but it serves a near-perfect | |
| purpose, to bolster American interests from Africa to the | |
| Western Hemisphere and to allow our nation to share the burden | |
| of promoting international peace and stability. | |
| The U.N. now has greatly improved its ability to identify | |
| and correct waste, fraud, and abuse. The General Assembly | |
| created the Independent Audit Advisory Committee, a move | |
| recommended by the Gingrich-Mitchell U.N. Task Force which is | |
| now headed by David Walker, the former U.S. Comptroller and | |
| head of GAO. The Secretary-General recently appointed a | |
| Canadian with decades of auditing and oversight experience as | |
| Under Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services. The | |
| U.N. has also moved aggressively to strengthen its ethical | |
| culture. A U.N. Ethics Office is in place and all U.N. funds | |
| and programs created individual ethics offices or agreed to use | |
| the Secretariat's Ethics Office. Led by a U.N. attorney, the | |
| U.N. Ethics Office oversees the new financial disclosure | |
| statements required by U.N. employees above a certain level and | |
| with fiduciary responsibilities. | |
| Since 2007, the U.N. has mandated ethics and integrity | |
| training for all U.N. staff members. | |
| Over the past 2 years, the U.N. has also taken significant | |
| steps to ensure that it has the most productive and effective | |
| work force possible. The U.N. created a professional and | |
| independent system made up of 15 judges to address employment | |
| issues. The U.N. decision to join the Human Rights Council has | |
| also produced tangible results. The U.S. led 55 other countries | |
| in a successful effort to criticize Iran for its human rights | |
| violations. Effective U.S. diplomacy has also improved the | |
| council's ability to address specific countries of concern. | |
| Nevertheless, some of the most challenging and serious human | |
| rights violations continue to go unaddressed and the council | |
| itself places undo focus on Israel. | |
| As with any public institution, fine tuning the operation | |
| is a continual process, but the U.N. is a very different | |
| institution today than it was just 5 or 6 years ago. The U.N. | |
| has implemented most of the reform recommendations made by the | |
| congressionally-mandated Task Force on the U.N. and by Paul | |
| Volcker's Independent Investigation Commission. But further | |
| progress will not happen unless the United States is at the | |
| table pressing for changes. And that means we must pay our dues | |
| to the U.N. on time and in full without threats of withholding | |
| our contribution. When we act otherwise we send a strong and | |
| provocative signal that we are more interested in tearing the | |
| U.N. down than making it better and going it alone, rather than | |
| working with all sides. | |
| Over the last few years, as Congress has paid our dues | |
| without drama and delay, we have been able to work well with | |
| the U.N. to move forward on many important management changes. | |
| And polls tell us that this cooperation is what the American | |
| people want and bipartisan research released by BWC this | |
| October, 63 percent of Americans support payment of U.S. dues | |
| to the U.N. on time and in full and 70 percent felt the same | |
| way about U.N. peacekeeping dues. But in the end, we need to | |
| our U.N. dues, not just because it's popular, but because it's | |
| necessary, necessary to maintain a healthy U.N., ready to stand | |
| by America and our deep and abiding interest in peace, | |
| stability, and democracy around the world. | |
| Thank you. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Yeo follows:] | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| Mr. Smith. Mr. Yeo, thank you very much. | |
| Mr. Quarterman. | |
| STATEMENT OF MR. MARK QUARTERMAN, SENIOR ADVISER AND DIRECTOR, | |
| PROGRAM ON CRISIS, CONFLICT, AND COOPERATION, CENTER FOR | |
| STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES | |
| Mr. Quarterman. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Berman, | |
| distinguished members of the committee, I'm honored to have | |
| been invited to appear before you today. | |
| As the result of my service with the United Nations, I'm | |
| well aware of the organization's strengths and weaknesses, as | |
| well as of its vital role in the world. The U.N. makes real | |
| contributions to the global good on a daily basis and is often | |
| the first responder in times of natural or man-made disaster. | |
| The World Food Programme feeds 90 million people in 73 | |
| countries. The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees | |
| supports 34 million forcibly displaced. UNICEF provides | |
| immunizations to more than half of the world's children. | |
| Peacekeeping has often been referred to as a force | |
| multiplier for the United States, but I believe that in a | |
| broader sense, the U.N. is an influence multiplier for the | |
| United States as well. And it plays this role in three ways. | |
| First, the U.N. operates in places where the United States | |
| might have concerns, but not fundamental interests. An example | |
| includes Sudan where the U.N. helped to keep the peace and | |
| played a central role in the recent successful referendum. This | |
| provides for burden and cost sharing. It allows U.S. interests | |
| to be addressed without U.S. troops being deployed. | |
| Second, the U.N. talks to people and parties the United | |
| States will not or cannot talk to. In Sudan, for example, along | |
| with the African Union, the U.N. has directly applied pressure | |
| on the regime in Khartoum to allow the referendum to go | |
| forward. | |
| Third, the U.N.'s legitimacy and credibility around the | |
| world enables it to carry out tasks that governments alone are | |
| not able to do. Thus, the Pakistani Government asked the United | |
| Nations to undertake an inquiry into the assassination of | |
| Benazir Bhutto, their former prime minister, which was my last | |
| job at the United Nations and something I was honored to do. | |
| The U.S. remains the most influential member of the U.N. | |
| and it does more to set the agenda of the organization than any | |
| other nation. Examples of the United States being outvoted in | |
| the U.N. come largely from the General Assembly, where the | |
| principle of one member, one vote pertains, but where | |
| resolutions are not binding on member states. | |
| However, the United States has a significant and powerful | |
| voice in the Security Council, in part because of its status as | |
| a permanent member with a veto and in part because of the | |
| initiative that America traditionally and consistently takes in | |
| the council. For example, the last 2 years of the Bush | |
| administration was among the most active and productive periods | |
| for the Security Council and resulted in groundbreaking | |
| resolutions. | |
| An emblematic earlier example of U.S. leadership is the | |
| skillful diplomacy deployed by the administration of George | |
| H.W. Bush in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. A more | |
| recent example of leadership in the council was the Obama | |
| administration's successful effort to place serious sanctions | |
| on Iran. | |
| U.S. leadership and influence in the U.N. results in part | |
| from its status as the largest contributor to the organization. | |
| We must not return to the days of withholding funds as some | |
| have suggested. Withholding funds hurts the U.N. and doesn't | |
| advance U.S. interests. This does not mean that the United | |
| States should not take a close look at management and budget | |
| issues in the U.N. Congress and the Executive Branch must | |
| ensure that America's contributions which are substantial are | |
| used effectively, efficiently, and for the purposes intended | |
| and approved. | |
| It's necessary for the United States to be actively engaged | |
| to exercise its influence in the U.N. fully. The Human Rights | |
| Council is a good example of this. There should be no doubt | |
| that the Human Rights Council needs reform. Reasonable people | |
| can disagree about whether the United States should engage or | |
| stay out. However, only by being at the table can the United | |
| States bring about the changes necessary to assist it to evolve | |
| into a more credible vehicle to protect and promote human | |
| rights around the world. | |
| No one is fully satisfied with multilateralism. Having | |
| working in the U.N. I saw that firsthand and felt that. It's | |
| hard. Multilateralism is very hard and we use it to tackle the | |
| toughest issues of the global commons, most of which touch on | |
| fundamental national interests of many countries. It requires | |
| bargaining, negotiation, and compromise. And it requires that | |
| in a way that's not unlike the legislative process we see in | |
| this venerable institution. While most of us are dissatisfied, | |
| we have to realize that there is no effective alternative | |
| method of dealing with transnational problems that do not | |
| respect borders and that have the potential of significantly | |
| affecting our lives. | |
| Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Berman, distinguished members | |
| of the committee, as I stated at the outset, and as has been | |
| stated, I served with the U.N. for 12 years. I served Because | |
| of the organization's ideals and I am proud that they were | |
| profoundly shaped and influenced by American ideals. I have | |
| friends and close colleagues at the U.N. who died in the line | |
| of duty in furtherance of the aims of the U.N. charter, for the | |
| global good. I honor them for their service and am honored by | |
| my time in service at the U.N. I believe in the United Nations | |
| and I want us to work together to help the U.N. to live up to | |
| its ideals. Thank you. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Quarterman follows:] | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| Mrs. Schmidt [presiding]. Thank you. | |
| And now we will hear from Mr. Appleton. | |
| STATEMENT OF MR. ROBERT APPLETON, FORMER CHAIRMAN, UNITED | |
| NATIONS PROCUREMENT TASK FORCE | |
| Mr. Appleton. I'd like to thank the committee for the | |
| invitation to appear today. I'm deeply honored for the | |
| opportunity. | |
| From 2006 to 2008, I served as the head of the United | |
| Nations Procurement Task Force, the PTF, a special independent | |
| anti-corruption investigations unit the U.N. created in the | |
| wake of the Oil-for-Food scandal, the responsibility to | |
| investigate fraud and corruption in the operations of the U.N. | |
| Secretariat, throughout the world, which included all of its | |
| peacekeeping missions and overseas offices. I reported to the | |
| Under Secretary-General of OIOS. | |
| The PTF was temporary, formed for specific purpose and | |
| independent of the U.N. General Assembly for its funding. Over | |
| 3 years, this 26-person investigation unit comprised of | |
| lawyers, former prosecutors, white collar fraud specialists, | |
| and forensic accountants from 14 countries under my direction | |
| conducted hundreds of corruption investigations, issued 36 | |
| major reports, complete with findings, conclusions and an | |
| aggregate total of 187 recommendations which included referrals | |
| to national authorities for prosecution, legal advice and | |
| proposals based on our previous experience to recover losses | |
| and damages and recommendations to pursue misconduct charges | |
| against staff that violated the rules and regulations of the | |
| organization or committed fraud or corruption. | |
| Through these investigations we identified at least 20 | |
| major fraud schemes, hundreds of millions in losses and waste | |
| and more than $1 billion in tainted contracts. Forty-seven | |
| contractors were debarred for corruption and the PTF marked the | |
| first time within the U.N. that the external investigations of | |
| those conducting business with the U.N. were properly and | |
| thoroughly investigated. A vendor sanctions panel and framework | |
| began a function and worked well. | |
| In those cases in which the PTF found fraud or other | |
| illegality, the results were largely substantiated by national | |
| courts. In an audit that was conducted by the PTF's operations | |
| in 2008 by the U.N. Board of Auditors found our methods | |
| appropriate, staff well qualified, and its existence served as | |
| a deterrent to fraud and corruption. A number of prosecutions | |
| by national authorities resulted from or were supported by the | |
| PTF, all of it explained herein. Many more could have been | |
| pursued. | |
| Nevertheless, much success was achieved despite the | |
| impediments. One of our most significant cases in the Southern | |
| District of New York, a senior procurement official and an | |
| agent of a large U.N. vendor were convicted after a 2-month | |
| trial engaging in $100 million fraud, collusion and bribery | |
| scheme in connection with a series of U.N. contracts. The | |
| procurement official was subsequently sentenced to 8\1/2\ years | |
| imprisonment and the evidence for this case was principally | |
| gathered by the PTF as contained in its report. | |
| However, despite the confirmation of the accuracy of the | |
| findings of the PTT in many cases, most unfortunately, the | |
| efforts of the PTF were opposed by certain Member State | |
| delegations who came to the defense of either citizens or | |
| officials who were nationals or their companies or citizens. | |
| The U.N. administration accepted the PTF, but showed lethargy | |
| in moving forward on many of its recommendations to pursue | |
| matters in civil courts or charging wrongdoers with misconduct. | |
| Prior to the expiration of the PTF at the end of 2008, the | |
| General Assembly at the behest of a Member State who opposed | |
| their efforts commissioned an audit of the PTF which ultimately | |
| found that we were compliant with U.N. rules, regulations, and | |
| standards and did not selectively target individuals, regions, | |
| or countries and the staff was well qualified. | |
| Hostility to the unique status and independence of the PTF | |
| for Member States who opposed its investigations finally led to | |
| the PTF's demise. In 2008, those Member States were able to | |
| successfully block further funding by the unit and the PTF was | |
| forced to close. Despite an admonition that the expertise and | |
| staff were to be incorporated into the OIOS, that did not | |
| happen. Despite this, PTF's efforts did not diminish and the | |
| professionalism to accomplish as much as possible did not wane. | |
| In the final months of the PTF's tenure, we identified--we | |
| completed five major corruption reports that had identified | |
| significant fraud and corruption, including a report on fraud | |
| in Iraq, significant and pervasive fraud in elections, roads, | |
| and rebuilding in Afghanistan, fraud and corruption in the | |
| Economic Commission of Afraid, and in several matters involving | |
| high value contracts for transportation in Africa. Despite | |
| that, as far as I am aware, and despite the recommendation, | |
| significant follow up has only been made in one case. | |
| The vision of the Under Secretary-General at the time for | |
| Financial Crimes Unit has been scuttled in place of a | |
| nondescript unit simply known as Unit 5 which until recently | |
| had but a few investigators and none with serious white collar | |
| fraud experience. At one time, investigators were informed that | |
| they were not going to investigate parties external to the | |
| organization, including tens of thousands of contractors that | |
| do business with the organization. Even worse, the former PTF | |
| investigators were subject to harassment and retaliation. Some | |
| were even the subject of investigations themselves for wholly | |
| spurious reasons, and when they were cleared by independent | |
| entities, no public mention was made of this fact. | |
| In short, all the achievements and advancements that were | |
| made by the PTF have since lapsed following its conclusion and | |
| the stark reality is that the ills that the U.N. experienced in | |
| the wake of the Oil-for-Food scandal are now distant memories | |
| in the halls of U.N. buildings and unless serious action takes | |
| place, there is no question history will repeat itself. | |
| Thank you. | |
| [The prepared statement of Mr. Appleton follows:] | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you very much, and before I give myself | |
| my allotted 5 minutes, I think Mr. Berman wants to make a | |
| statement regarding his committee's side. | |
| Mr. Berman. Thank you very much. Simply to point out that | |
| this is a briefing, not a hearing because the committee has not | |
| yet formally organized. Both sides have a number of new members | |
| and it's my intention to wait until that organizational meeting | |
| to introduce our side of the new members' group. We're glad to | |
| have all these members, but we'll wait until the organizational | |
| meeting which is, as I understand it, now will not occur until | |
| after we come back from the recess in 2 weeks. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. We wanted to get that piece of housekeeping | |
| out of the way. | |
| Okay, I'm going to budget myself 5 minutes, which means I'd | |
| like your answers to be very short and very concise. | |
| Mr. Yeo and Mr. Quarterman, you have talked about how | |
| important it is for the United States to pay our assessed dues | |
| in full, but you've worked in Congress and you know the biggest | |
| leverage we have with the Executive Branch is the power of the | |
| purse. Past history contradicts your arguments, like the 1990s, | |
| when we got substantial reform with the Helms-Biden agreement, | |
| which conditioned payment of past dues on specific key reforms. | |
| But I'd like to ask all of our briefers: If the U.N. agencies | |
| and other Member States know that we're going to pay our | |
| assessed contribution in full, no matter what, why on earth | |
| would they agree to real reforms? And the second part: So | |
| doesn't simple facts and logic call precisely for using our | |
| contributions as leverage and not just as paying our dues in | |
| full? I'm going to give you about 20 seconds each to answer | |
| that. | |
| Mr. Schaefer? | |
| Mr. Schaefer. Well, the short answer is that the U.N. | |
| regards U.S. assessments as an entitlement. They don't think | |
| that the United States should use those assessments as leverage | |
| and they resist reform in general. As I mentioned in my oral | |
| statement, the U.N. is nothing but patient. It is willing to | |
| outlast and wait for certain individuals to turn their | |
| attention to other matters. And you have to tie financial | |
| leverage if you want to get the U.N.'s attention. I mentioned a | |
| number of specific reforms in my written statement and I'd like | |
| it submitted for the record, if I could. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Mrs. Rosett? | |
| Ms. Rosett. There are two levers I have seen have any | |
| effect, shame and money. Money is far more powerful. The two | |
| are linked and the thing that I think does matter and should be | |
| done of the main focuses right away is we endlessly talk about | |
| transparency at the U.N. It is an endless game in which it is | |
| promised and again I refer you to that financial disclosure | |
| form where they disclosed nothing. And the Secretary-General | |
| boasts about it. | |
| There are things, especially in the digital age, that are | |
| both important for security reasons, important for information, | |
| and important for any reform. There should be enormous pressure | |
| for the U.N. to actually produce intelligible, consolidated | |
| databases. If you ask everyone in this room what is the U.N.'s | |
| system-wide budget you will get answers where actually the | |
| rounding errors are $5 billion. That's strange. That needs | |
| remedy. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. | |
| Ms. Rosett. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Mr. Neuer? | |
| Mr. Neuer. We've always supported the United States paying | |
| its fair share of the dues. There's no question that U.N. | |
| agencies that are voluntary are known and U.S. diplomats will | |
| tell you to be far more accountable and to operate better. It's | |
| something that we see in Geneva regularly. | |
| In addition, there are, of course, U.N. agencies such as | |
| the Division on the Palestinian Affairs which gets some $5, $6 | |
| million every biennial budget that clearly ought to be anti- | |
| funded. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Mr. Yeo? | |
| Mr. Yeo. Over the past 5 to 6 years you've seen concrete | |
| changes in the way the U.N. is run whether it's in terms of | |
| ethics, oversight, personnel, all of which have occurred | |
| without any legislative threat between dues and reform, so we | |
| do not need the threat of withholding dues to actually make | |
| something happen at the U.N. to make it a more efficient | |
| institution. | |
| Second of all, 70 percent of all of America's assessed | |
| contributions to the U.N. each year are for U.N. peacekeeping. | |
| As a permanent member of the Security Council, we must actively | |
| support the creation and the change of any U.N. peacekeeping | |
| mission. So we already have more power than 187 other states at | |
| the U.N. that do not have the veto. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. Mr. Quarterman? | |
| Mr. Quarterman. Thank you very much. The U.S. has multiple | |
| needs at the U.N. It needs, of course, to oversee the use of | |
| its funds to make sure that those funds are used effectively, | |
| to make sure the U.N. is run effectively. It also has | |
| diplomatic needs. The United Nations, as Mr. Yeo pointed out, | |
| puts peacekeeping missions in the field, carries out a variety | |
| of other tasks as well. The U.S. has substantial influence over | |
| the shape and organization and deployment of peacekeeping | |
| missions, but it needs to--but I've seen that U.S. influence | |
| has lessened when the United States has not contributed and the | |
| diplomatic atmosphere is less positive. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. Mr. Appleton? | |
| Mr. Appleton. Thanks, very briefly, it's the only | |
| legitimate, real tool that can be used and it's what most | |
| officials inside the U.N. Secretariat are most fearful of. And | |
| the irony is that the fear of bad news is and its possible | |
| effect on donations is the reason why the organization is not | |
| transparent. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. And in keeping with my policy of a | |
| firm 5 minutes. I've got 17 seconds left, so I'm going to yield | |
| back my balance and give Mr. Berman his 5 minutes. | |
| Mr. Berman. Well, thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman and | |
| I thank all of you for coming and for your excellent testimony. | |
| I found a great deal o fit very interesting and educational. | |
| Mr. Schaefer touches on an issue that I think we have to cope | |
| with, the notion that 128 of the member countries pay about 1 | |
| percent of the total U.N. regular budget and can drive in a | |
| non-consensus budget process. The thing is something that I | |
| think we do have to come to grips with. | |
| But Mr. Yeo's recent comment is--the comment he just made, | |
| that 70 percent of American expenditures that are assessed, go | |
| to the peacekeeping where no peacekeeping occurs if the United | |
| States doesn't want it to occur because those are ordered by | |
| the Security Council and we have a veto there. | |
| It adds a little context to what you were saying, Mr. | |
| Schaefer. I also find your testimony useful in that it told me | |
| things I had no idea that there were these regional commissions | |
| drawing and expending apparently significant sums of money and | |
| work that I have no idea what they do and I've never heard | |
| anything about them before. So I thank you for that. | |
| But I'd like to ask--and the other thing I might note | |
| though is if I listen to the harshest critics on this panel | |
| regarding the U.N., apparently nothing that the U.N. does do | |
| they find to be positive. It did seem to be the glass is | |
| completely empty sort of position. | |
| Mr. Neuer, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions. Do | |
| you agree with the opening statement essentially that the | |
| United States should not have joined the Human Rights Council? | |
| That's sort of a yes or no question. | |
| Mr. Neuer. Thank you. We welcomed the U.S. joining provided | |
| that they would do certain things. | |
| Mr. Berman. Do you think that the United States should get | |
| off that council right now? | |
| Mr. Neuer. No, we have not taken that position and we | |
| continue to urge the United States to do the things necessary. | |
| Mr. Berman. Do you think the United States should withhold | |
| the amount of dues one assumes is being spent by the Human | |
| Rights Council or a proportionate share of that dues? | |
| Mr. Neuer. It's not something we've taken a position on. | |
| Mr. Berman. You're not advocating that? | |
| Mr. Neuer. We haven't taken a position on that at this | |
| time. | |
| Mr. Berman. Okay. Do you think the U.S. role has produced | |
| some useful changes at the Human Rights Council? | |
| Mr. Neuer. Yes, there have been some changes in tone. One | |
| of them is described in my prepared testimony regarding, for | |
| example, defending the rights of NGOs and of course, the United | |
| States has stood with Israel. One example is something that | |
| happened today regarding the regional groups where the | |
| Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was addressing an Assembly in | |
| Geneva of all member states and Israel being excluded from any | |
| of the regional groups in Geneva, while it is a member of the | |
| western group in New York, it is excluded in Geneva. It was not | |
| represented when those five groups made their statements. The | |
| United States' mission stood for principal, stood with Israel | |
| disassociating itself from the western group's statement | |
| because Israel was excluded and discriminated against in that | |
| fashion. That's, of course, something that out to be saluted. | |
| Mr. Berman. In fact, if you don't mind, I'd like to quote | |
| in my remaining time that part of your prepared testimony that | |
| you weren't able to give because you summed it up. ``The | |
| council's abysmal record''--and I'm quoting you--``comes in | |
| spite of the determined efforts of a few stakeholders. In this | |
| regard, we commend the dedicated work of the U.S. delegation in | |
| Geneva. We have had the privilege to interact with Ambassador | |
| King, Ambassador Donahoe, and their colleagues, and we greatly | |
| appreciate their leadership and support. When UN Watch brought | |
| victims of Libyan torture to testify before the council, a | |
| string of repressive regimes interrupted and sought to silence | |
| them. The U.S. delegation spoke out and successfully defended | |
| the victims' right to speak. We equally appreciate the | |
| important work of Ambassador Barton and his colleagues at | |
| ECOSOC in defending the rights of NGOs'' of which your | |
| organization is one. So I appreciate you sharing this | |
| information and I yield back the balance of my time. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you to my good colleague from | |
| California and now I'd like to turn it over to my good | |
| colleague from New Jersey, Mr. Smith, subcommittee chairman on | |
| Africa Global Health and Human Rights. | |
| Mr. Smith. I thank my good friend, the distinguished chair | |
| from Ohio, for yielding and welcome to the panelists. Thank you | |
| for your testimony. | |
| You know, last week, Hu Jintao evaded any meaningful | |
| accountability for presiding over some of the most egregious | |
| human rights abuses and violations in the world. By Friday, the | |
| press in China and I read much of the press were calling it a | |
| master stroke of diplomacy. At a press conference on Thursday, | |
| President Obama offered what the Washington Post called in its | |
| editorial President Obama makes Hu Jintao look good on rights' | |
| excuses for Chinese human rights violations. He said ``China | |
| has a different culture.'' Yes, it has a different culture. ``A | |
| wonderful culture.'' The people of China as expressed in | |
| Charter 08, desperately want human rights to be protected and | |
| tens of thousands of people languish in the Laogai simply | |
| because they wanted democracy and human rights protected, | |
| including Lu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner. | |
| President said they have a different political system. Yes, | |
| it's a dictatorship. And they rule by guns and force and | |
| torture. So those excuses were at best lame and I think they | |
| were very, very enabling and the press in China clearly shows | |
| that. | |
| But for the U.N.'s part, frankly, they have failed | |
| repeatedly; the Human Rights Council, CEDAW, the treaty body, | |
| which should have and continues to not hold China accountable. | |
| The Convention on the Rights of the Child treaty body has | |
| failed to hold them to account. In instance after instance, | |
| China, except for people like Manfred Nowak who is a great | |
| piece of torture in China, it is largely just brushed aside and | |
| the world community looks askance at China's egregious | |
| violations of human rights. Nowhere is this more egregious in | |
| my view than in the 30-year program known as the one-child-per- | |
| couple policy where brothers and sisters are illegal, where | |
| forced abortion is pervasive. It is every woman's story to be | |
| coerced into having an abortion or an involuntary | |
| sterilization. | |
| I met with Pong Piun, a woman who ran the program in the | |
| 1990s and all she kept telling me was that the UNFPA is here | |
| and they see no coercion. Last week, Speaker Boehner asked Hu | |
| Jintao whether or not--about forced abortion--and what did Hu | |
| Jintao say? There's no forced abortions in China. When you | |
| deny, deny, deny and lie and deceive as they do and that's | |
| enabled by the UNFPA which has a program there and trains | |
| family planning cadres, that makes the UNFPA complicit in these | |
| crimes against women and crimes against humanity. | |
| Let me just mention a few final points and Mr. Yeo, you | |
| might want to speak to this. Ted Turner, in December at the | |
| Cancun meeting on global climate change, said that the U.N. or | |
| the world needs a one child per couple policy, again, brothers | |
| and sisters are illegal in China. The only way you enforce it | |
| is with coercion, heavy fines, and of course, this crime | |
| against humanity which the Nazis were held to account for at | |
| the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal as a crime against humanity | |
| because they practiced forced abortion against Polish women. | |
| Ted Turner said we need one-child-per-couple policy. Upon | |
| questioning, he said I don't really know the intricacies as to | |
| how it is implemented. Are you kidding? | |
| Mr. Yeo, you might want to speak to that. I have held 27 | |
| hearings on human rights abuse in China alone, most of those | |
| with a heavy emphasis on this terrible attack against women. | |
| This is the worst human rights violation of women's rights ever | |
| and we have been largely silent. The U.N. has been totally | |
| silent. Beyond that, they've been complicit. So if you could | |
| speak to that and Mr. Yeo, you might want to speak to it first. | |
| Mr. Yeo. Sure. Thank you, Congressman, first of all, for | |
| your passionate interest in this issue. You and I completely | |
| agree that a coercive abortion, coercive family planning and | |
| forced sterilization is absolutely outrageous. It has no place | |
| in any type of family planning programs anywhere in the world. | |
| So we 100 percent agree on this. | |
| Let me make two comments. First of all, in the context of | |
| UNFPA's work in China, they have repeatedly indicated to the | |
| Chinese that they oppose the coercive nature of the one-child | |
| policy and in the counties in which UNFPA was operating under | |
| its previous plan, the abortion rate went down, forced | |
| sterilization rate went down, and the rate at which people had | |
| access to voluntary family planning went up. | |
| What's happening now in the context of China is UNFPA is | |
| working directly with the Chinese Government to continue to | |
| emphasize the voluntary nature of their program. | |
| Mr. Smith. I'm almost out of time. Let me say very briefly, | |
| that is contested. And let me also say for everyone, we need to | |
| be considering the missing girls. Chai Ling, the great leader | |
| of the Tianneman Square, activist movement, who thankfully got | |
| out of China, she's running a group called All Girls Allowed, | |
| trying to raise the issue of the missing girls. One hundred | |
| million is one estimate. The disproportionate between males and | |
| females, completely attributable to the one-child policy. A | |
| terrible, terrible crime of gender. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you very much to my good friend from | |
| New Jersey and to my other good friend from New Jersey--is this | |
| a New Jersey thing going on here? | |
| Mr. Sires, for 5 minutes. | |
| Mr. Sires. Thank you very much. You know for all the | |
| positives and the strengths of the U.N., I think it's | |
| overshadowed by its weaknesses and I'm not in favor of reducing | |
| money for the U.N., but I'll tell you, I'm getting very close. | |
| As I look at this Human Rights Council, I'm a Cuban- | |
| American. I lived in Cuba until I was 11 years old. I saw Che | |
| Guevara set up the firing squads. I see what's going on with | |
| the prisoners in jail. I saw Orlando Zapata die. I read all | |
| about it. I read what they do to the Women in White. I see what | |
| they do with Israel. I see that we have Alan Gross in jail for | |
| over a year. And the resolutions don't seem to come up. And | |
| what is the answer to reform? What do they do? They elect the | |
| Ambassador from Cuba as vice president of the council. | |
| My friends, it's not that we need reform. It's broken. You | |
| should throw it in the East River the whole committee. I mean | |
| it is just shameful that you have a Human Rights Commission | |
| that elects these people and all they do is beat up on the only | |
| democracy that we have and make a mockery of the human rights | |
| conditions in Cuba. | |
| So when you talk about reform, it is just so dysfunctional. | |
| It's so shameful. I don't even know how they can sit in a | |
| committee and have the Vice President talk about human rights. | |
| I believe they crank up the propaganda machine, 128 | |
| counties on any resolution, they vote against the interests of | |
| the United States all the time. So I guess I am frustrated as | |
| my colleague from New Jersey is. It's turning into a tool to | |
| beat up on this country. It's turning into a tool to protect | |
| themselves from criticism on human rights, so how do you reform | |
| it? Can anybody tell me? Other than--and I'm not advocating | |
| taking the money away, but I tell you, I'm getting very close. | |
| Peter, my friend? | |
| Mr. Yeo. Thank you for your question. Obviously, Cuba's | |
| human rights record, I couldn't agree with you more in terms of | |
| how dismal it is. I would just note though that since the | |
| United States has rejoined the council, Cuban influence over | |
| certain decisions has decreased significantly and in fact, Cuba | |
| opposed the creation of a special rapporteur in terms of | |
| freedom of assembly and was overruled on that move. | |
| Second of all, since the United States has rejoined the | |
| council, the council itself has spoken out on important human | |
| rights issues around the world, and has done so even over Cuban | |
| objections and the objections of other countries. By being at | |
| the table, the United States can stand up for our allies, can | |
| stand up for human rights. If we're not there, our voice goes | |
| away. And so the United States is an imperative to use the | |
| Human Rights Council as a way for us to stand up for human | |
| rights and for us to stand up for democracy. | |
| Mr. Sires. Mr. Schaefer, will you comment on that? | |
| Mr. Schaefer. The council hasn't passed a resolution on | |
| Cuba. | |
| Mr. Sires. I've been a rights advocate for 48 years and I | |
| never heard a resolution yet. | |
| Mr. Schaefer. The human rights advocates that go before the | |
| council are repeatedly abused and interrupted, intimidating | |
| them from speaking freely by Cuba and its allies on the | |
| council. The council is broken and a big part of the problem is | |
| the membership. The membership needs to change. There is a | |
| review that is mandatory this year for considering reforms to | |
| the council to try and improve it. And there needs to be | |
| serious membership criteria to keep countries like Cuba from | |
| getting on the council and influencing unduly its agenda. | |
| Mr. Sires. How do you do that when they have so much | |
| influence, some of these other countries? How do you keep these | |
| people away from this committee? | |
| Mr. Schaefer. Well, one way to do it is to force regional | |
| groups to offer competitive slates. I'm not saying that Cuba | |
| wouldn't get elected, but if there is actually a competitive | |
| election the chances of Cuba getting elected are diminished, | |
| and other countries with reprehensible human rights records as | |
| well. | |
| Mr. Sires. This is an election that elected the Vice | |
| President. This reminds me of the election in Cuba. Castro gets | |
| 98 percent of the vote, but nobody else runs. | |
| Mr. Schaefer. If you take a look at the elections they | |
| have, most regional groups offer clean slates, meaning the only | |
| number of candidates that are open slots on the council are put | |
| forward. And so essentially it's a rigged election. You need to | |
| have competition so that viable candidates with better human | |
| rights records are on the ballot and hopefully they would draw | |
| more support. | |
| Another thing is that the Human Rights Council is funded | |
| through the U.N. regular budget so it's an assessed | |
| contribution. The U.S. can symbolically withhold the U.S. | |
| proportional amount of that, but it gets spread throughout the | |
| U.N. regular budget and so the council never really feels it. | |
| We need to spin those types of activities out of the U.N. | |
| regular budget so that if Congress is upset with the conduct of | |
| the council or its actions, it can directly target the council | |
| itself for the financial leverage that it has available to it. | |
| Mr. Sires. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you very much. And now I will turn to | |
| my good friend from California on the Subcommittee on Oversight | |
| and Investigations, the chairman. It's your turn, sir. | |
| Mr. Rohrabacher. Thank you very much. I've been trying to | |
| get a handle on how much money we're talking about. One of you | |
| referenced that it was--when you take a look at the overall | |
| picture and the very different things that we're talking about | |
| are part of the U.N. that was close to $5 billion. What are we | |
| talking about here? How much are we spending--or how much is | |
| the budget of all of these U.N.--yes? | |
| Mr. Schaefer. Congressman, that's an excellent question and | |
| to be honest with you, nobody really had an answer until fairly | |
| recently. Congress actually mandated that OMB consolidate all | |
| of the monies that the United States gives to the United | |
| Nations' organizations in general and the first report on that | |
| was produced by OMB in 2005. The most recent report by OMB said | |
| that the United States gave total $6.3-plus billion to the | |
| United Nations' system in 2009. The legislation---- | |
| Mr. Rohrabacher. Excuse me, is that what the United States | |
| gave or is that the budget for all---- | |
| Mr. Schaefer. That's what the United States gave in 2009. | |
| Mr. Rohrabacher. Oh. | |
| Mr. Schaefer. The best estimate I've seen for the entire | |
| U.N. system including regular budget and extra budgetary | |
| figures was $36 billion and that was produced in the U.N. | |
| report in 2010. | |
| Mr. Rohrabacher. Okay, and anyone else on the panel have | |
| more to add to that? | |
| Mr. Yeo. I would just add that in terms of U.S. | |
| contributions, the 2.1 that is sent every year in terms of our | |
| assessed contributions to peacekeeping is all done with | |
| American approval through the concept of the Security Council. | |
| Mr. Rohrabacher. Yes, through the Security Council which | |
| also I might add China has a veto over anything that can be | |
| done from the Security Council. So let's add that to America's | |
| approval. | |
| Yes, ma'am? | |
| Ms. Rosett. The answer is actually nobody knows. If you | |
| call the Secretariat which I do periodically and ask them what | |
| is the U.N. system-wide budget, the answer they do not even | |
| systematically keep track. And different agencies take in | |
| different amounts. The OMB figures are missing some items. So | |
| even the U.S. $6.3 billion answer isn't obvious. | |
| Mr. Rohrabacher. All right. | |
| Ms. Rosett. The U.N. has gone in for public/private | |
| partnerships, trust funds. That's why I'm saying what is needed | |
| is a consolidated, clear database that really tells you not | |
| just what they're budgeting but what they're spending, because | |
| right now--some years ago, former chairman Henry Hyde said he | |
| could not get a handle on the total budget. | |
| Mr. Rohrabacher. Let's just note that the chairman of this | |
| committee told us earlier, Mr. Berman, that he didn't even know | |
| about these regional U.N. operations and he's chairman of the | |
| Foreign Affairs Committee, for Pete's sake. I would say that | |
| we've got some work to do if we're going to be representing the | |
| interest of the American people. So maybe $6.3 billion, maybe | |
| more, out of a possible $36 billion budget--how much of that is | |
| of the $36 billion is China paying? | |
| Yes, ma'am? | |
| Ms. Rosett. They pay about a tenth of what the United | |
| States pays in assessed dues. For the rest, again, we simply | |
| don't know. If you ask for a consolidated statement, you can't | |
| get it. Each agency is supposed to keep track in itself. The | |
| agencies are opaque. There's no way to know. | |
| Mr. Rohrabacher. Let me just note with the answers we just | |
| got there is a global fund that fights AIDS, for example. And | |
| the United States has spent in the last 8 years, $4.3 billion. | |
| This isn't a U.N. agency. That's not even included in the $36 | |
| billion. So we spent $4.3 billion, that's 28 percent of all the | |
| contributions, similar to what we're doing. Yet, China has | |
| given $16 million to the fund. Let us note for just that fund, | |
| China has received $1 billion while contributing $16 million | |
| and let me just note that they've only had 38 cases a year of | |
| malaria and AIDS--or malaria, which is the malaria money that | |
| we're talking about that while the Congo has massive death from | |
| malaria, it received just $149 million to combat malaria is | |
| what China received, and the Congo which has massive problem, | |
| received $122 million. | |
| So in other words, you've got this big country, China, who | |
| is not contributing very much and receiving great benefits from | |
| these U.N. programs. We can't put up with that. This is absurd. | |
| When we have a $1.5 trillion deficit in this country, we're not | |
| going to put up with any more. What we're doing is loaning-- | |
| we're taking loans from China in order to give to U.N. programs | |
| that then are being ripped off by China. This has got to stop | |
| and I would say, Madam Chairman, that the U.N. should be one of | |
| our prime targets for reducing expenditures in order to bring | |
| down this deficit in our next few years. Thank you very much. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you very much. And now I'd like to turn | |
| this over to Mr. Ted Deutch from Florida. | |
| Mr. Deutch. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to follow up | |
| on where the ranking member left off, that is, the Human Rights | |
| Council and the United States role. The U.S. on a positive | |
| note, the United States helped block Iran's membership in the | |
| Human Rights Council and the United States helped mobilize a | |
| statement condemning repression in Iran, but I'd like to | |
| understand the process a little bit. | |
| How is it that of the 50 resolutions, Mr. Neuer, that | |
| condemned countries, 35 condemned Israel? Where do they | |
| originate? And ultimately, I'd like to talk about how we reform | |
| that. But if you could speak to that, please? | |
| Mr. Neuer. Sure, thank you. The resolutions, the 35 on | |
| Israel, for example, are all, as far as I can recall, | |
| introduced by the Islamic group and the Arab group at the Human | |
| Rights Council. They control an automatic majority. Of the 47 | |
| Member States, approximately 30 will approve anything that is | |
| introduced by these groups. The resolution could propose that | |
| the earth is flat and that resolution would be adopted by 30 | |
| votes out of 47. So the moment anything happens in the Middle | |
| East, or doesn't happen, these resolutions are being introduced | |
| and adopted automatically. And that's the problem. | |
| There's an automatic majority that is dominated by | |
| repressive regimes. There are countries who vote for them that | |
| are not repressive regimes, countries like India. That's a | |
| democracy, for example, or South Africa. Regrettably, they | |
| continue to vote along dynamics that are either consistent with | |
| the non-aligned movement, the anti-Colonial, anti-Western | |
| ideologies and so we have this majority. | |
| The question is, how can we stop it? And the answer in the | |
| near term is that we cannot stop these resolutions and it is | |
| almost impossible to pass a resolution. As we heard before, the | |
| situation in Cuba, an organization, Human Rights Watch, has | |
| worked with victims from Cuba, like Nestor Rodgriguez Lobaina | |
| who has been beaten up and was denied permission to attend a | |
| human rights summit that we organized last year. It's | |
| impossible to pass a resolution on these situations. | |
| However, and this is a critical point, we spoke here today | |
| about the power of the purse. Well, at the U.N. that resides in | |
| New York and the General Assembly. Geneva Human Rights Council | |
| has the power of shame. It is very significant. It is the power | |
| to turn an international spotlight on some of the worst abuses | |
| of the world that would otherwise go hidden and to help victims | |
| who have no independent voice, no freedom of the press, or free | |
| Parliament, or free judiciary. And what we have not seen is a | |
| determined effort by the democracies, the United States, the | |
| European Union, and others, to introduce resolutions even if we | |
| know they're going to fail. And being in the opposition, as | |
| members here will know, has a lot of tools. | |
| And what we want to see is resolutions introduced on Iran, | |
| on Cuba, on China, on Zimbabwe. Even if they fail, the | |
| attention, the diplomatic energy and commotion that is | |
| generated would have, in our view, the same effect and would | |
| take the offensive and put the worst abusers on the defense. | |
| Mr. Deutch. Is there some history of that? Are there | |
| resolutions that have been proposed and rejected that would | |
| further our human rights agenda? | |
| Mr. Neuer. Not at the Human Rights Council, but previously | |
| at the Human Rights Commission under the Bush administration | |
| this did happen. There were resolutions introduced on China, on | |
| Zimbabwe that failed. And in our view, had a positive effect. | |
| Mr. Deutch. In the short time left, Mr. Schaefer, you | |
| talked about membership standards. I'm intrigued. I think that | |
| would permit us to have a frank discussion about the nature of | |
| the nations that are making determinations about human rights | |
| standards throughout the world. Can you elaborate a bit? | |
| Mr. Schaefer. Sure. The resolution that created the U.N. | |
| Human Rights Council said that countries have to submit a | |
| declaration of their dedication to human rights. So you have | |
| this farcical process wherein China or Iran submit their human | |
| rights bona fides to the United Nations General Assembly saying | |
| why they deserve to be elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council | |
| and no one pays attention to it. I think that there needs to be | |
| an outside evaluation of that, perhaps by NGOs, Freedom House, | |
| some other organizations could take a look at that and give an | |
| assessment, an objective assessment of the actual grades and | |
| hopefully, that could influence the process. Perhaps if you | |
| move away from a secret ballot to a recorded vote on some of | |
| these things you may actually see some changes in votes, but | |
| the key thing, I think, is moving to a competitive election, | |
| rather than a clean slate election wherein countries are just | |
| locked into it. | |
| Mr. Deutch. I only have a few seconds. Could you speak | |
| though to the credentials that China, for example, would have | |
| put forth to justify its membership? | |
| Mr. Schaefer. It said that it had freedom of assembly. It | |
| said that it was a democracy. It said that they respected | |
| freedom of the press. I mean you can go---- | |
| Mr. Deutch. Iran as well? | |
| Mr. Schaefer. Iran as well, all across the board. These | |
| countries basically say they espouse the fundamental freedoms | |
| endorsed in the U.N. charter and in the universal declaration | |
| because that is the criteria you're supposed to meet in terms | |
| of being eligible for a council seat. | |
| Mr. Deutch. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you, and now I'd like to give 5 minutes | |
| to my esteemed colleague from southern Ohio, Steve Chabot, | |
| Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia, chairman. | |
| Mr. Chabot. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Before I get in a | |
| couple of questions, I want to tell you a personal thing that | |
| happened. For a year, I was the Republican representative from | |
| Congress to the United Nations. Each year we have one | |
| Republican and one Democrat. And it was the year after 2001, | |
| coincidentally. And we happen to be at the U.N. and the topic | |
| for discussion at this U.N. event was human trafficking and | |
| international child abduction and that sort of thing. And we | |
| spent a lot of the day in meetings all over the place. Well, it | |
| turned out even though that was supposed to be the topic, most | |
| of our U.N. diplomats spent most of the day behind the scenes | |
| trying to prevent the Arab bloc from kicking Israel out of the | |
| conference. And it seemed to be apparently just a typical day | |
| at the U.N. | |
| The U.N. needs to be completely overhauled. We talked about | |
| this, the Human Rights Council and you have Cuba and Libya and | |
| the rest of them on there, probably the world's worst abusers | |
| of human rights and I think number one, relative to our dues, | |
| we shouldn't give a penny to the U.N. until they disband that | |
| Human Rights Council and completely overhaul it and completely | |
| reform it. That's just one member's up here view. | |
| But let me get to a couple of questions. The U.N. | |
| Humanitarian Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, refuses to | |
| vet its staff for aid recipients for ties to terrorist groups. | |
| It doesn't even think Hamas is a terrorist organization. It | |
| engages in anti-Israel and pro-Hamas propaganda and banks with | |
| Syrian institutions designated under the USA Patriot Act for | |
| terror financing and money laundering. Why is the United States | |
| still the largest single donor? Why have we given them about | |
| $0.5 billion in the last 2 years alone? Why hasn't the United | |
| States publicly criticized UNRWA for these problems and | |
| withheld funding until it reforms, given that Hamas controls | |
| security in Gaza and that Hamas has confiscated UNRWA aid | |
| packages in the past? How can we possibly guarantee that U.S. | |
| contributions to UNRWA will not end up in Hamas' hands? | |
| And I'd invite any, maybe two folks on the panel to take | |
| this before I get to my last question. | |
| Yes, Ms. Rosett? | |
| Ms. Rosett. You can't guarantee it. In fact, it does. A | |
| conversation I had with someone--UNRWA is headquartered in Gaza | |
| and basically provides support services for what has become a | |
| terrorist enclave. So they've actually created a terrorist | |
| welfare enclave there. And I asked, ``How do you vet your staff | |
| to make sure that they are not terrorist members of Hamas?'' | |
| The answer I was given was, ``We check them against the U.N. | |
| 1267 list.'' That sounds very impressive, unless you happen to | |
| know that the 1267 list is al-Qaeda which is maybe a problem in | |
| Gaza, but it's not the main problem. The problem is Hamas. | |
| The U.N. has no definition of terrorist. Therefore, what | |
| that means is it does not recognize Hamas or Hezbollah as | |
| terrorists. In other words, there really is no way. They don't | |
| check--in order for you to check, you would have to ask for a | |
| full accounting of who exactly is spending the money in Gaza. | |
| And may I just say in looking at the things that do come out of | |
| UNRWA that are visible, I pondered--I came across UNICEF | |
| country appeal in which they were asking donations from inside | |
| Iran for a Gaza appeal. Remember, Iranian-back terrorist Hamas | |
| runs Gaza where UNRWA is headquartered. | |
| Mr. Chabot. Let me go to my last question. I appreciate the | |
| response. | |
| Ms. Rosett. Sure. | |
| Mr. Chabot. In September, the United Nations is scheduled | |
| to hold an anniversary celebration of the infamous Durban | |
| Conference on racism, taking place only days after the tenth | |
| anniversary of the September 11th attacks on this nation. This | |
| Durban III Conference is likely to feature the same hateful, | |
| anti-American, and anti-Israel rhetoric that characterized the | |
| previous two conferences. Canada and Israel have both announced | |
| that they will not attend, but the U.S. administration has | |
| refused to announce a boycott of the event. | |
| Shouldn't the United States immediately join Israel and | |
| Canada in announcing that it will not participate in or support | |
| Durban III and isn't there no hope that the conference will | |
| address real issues of racism, given that it would be | |
| commemorating the biased Durban declaration of 2001? And | |
| shouldn't we finally give up on this failed Durban process and | |
| seek credible alternatives? | |
| I've got 30 seconds, so yes, sir. | |
| Mr. Schaefer. I think that that's entirely likely. In fact, | |
| the Obama administration boycotted the Durban II conference | |
| because of concern that it was not going to be addressing the | |
| issues in an unbiased fashion in regards to Israel. And that's | |
| likely to occur again. I'm kind of startled that they haven't | |
| made a strong statement in that regard and announced a boycott | |
| already. | |
| One thing I will mention is that conference and UNRWA also | |
| received money through the U.N. regular budget, so it's | |
| assessed, and the U.S. withholding is extremely impeded by this | |
| assessed process. If we decide to withhold our proportional | |
| amount to UNRWA or to this conference from the U.N. regular | |
| budget, again it gets spread around and therefore the U.S. | |
| target of that withholding is insulated from that effort. | |
| Mr. Chabot. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Schaefer. So we need to spin these activities outside | |
| and have them be voluntarily funded. | |
| Mr. Chabot. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. And now I'd like to turn to my good friend | |
| from Rhode Island, Mr. Cicilline, for 5 minutes. | |
| Mr. Cicilline. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to first | |
| associate myself with the remarks of our ranking member and | |
| recognizing that we have much work to do in reforming the | |
| United Nations and thank him for identifying some of those | |
| issues. I think we all recognize we live in an increasingly | |
| complex and interconnected world with a growing global economy | |
| and so I think we have a responsibility to figure out how we | |
| strengthen and improve the operations of the United Nations. | |
| And one of the areas, the question I want to ask relates to | |
| the peacekeeping function of the United Nations, recognizing | |
| that the United Nations peacekeepers are in 14 of the most | |
| dangerous places in the world and has the second largest | |
| deployed military presence in the world. And looking at kind of | |
| the costs because a lot of this conversation is about costs. We | |
| spent in this country in 2010 $70 billion in Afghanistan and | |
| over the last 10 years we've spent over $1 trillion in Iraq and | |
| Afghanistan. | |
| There was a GAO study that said that the U.N. is eight | |
| times less expensive than if the U.S. were to do much of this | |
| work unilaterally. The RAND Corporation said that the U.N. has | |
| been effective as a peacekeeping force. And so in light of that | |
| and in light of the fact that under both President Bush, both | |
| Democrat and Republican administrations, there seems to have | |
| been an increased number of missions in terms of the | |
| peacekeeping function. | |
| I just wanted to hear from the witnesses about, you know, | |
| are there improvements that need to be made in that area? It | |
| seems to be effective, certainly cost effective in terms of | |
| what we would spend if we were to engage in unilateral action | |
| and are there--so is there some consensus on the panel that | |
| that's a function that is bringing peace to the world, doing it | |
| in a cost efficient way and that it isn't as if we do nothing? | |
| We'd have to respond to some of these issues and at a cost | |
| sometimes eight times as expensive. Is that a fair analysis? | |
| Mr. Yeo. Thank you, Congressman, for your question. I would | |
| say that first of all there is room for improvement in terms of | |
| peacekeeping. The Secretary-General has launched a 5-year | |
| strategy to ensure that we better have the capability to launch | |
| peacekeeping missions quickly and that the cost associated with | |
| running the missions are shared between missions through | |
| regional centers so there are concrete measures that are being | |
| considered that we can move forward with to make the missions | |
| themselves more efficient and more cost effective. | |
| The other point I would note is that the U.N. does have | |
| strong special political missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. And | |
| as we think about our extensive involvement in both of those | |
| countries and the presence of American troops, the U.N. will be | |
| there for a decade to come, working with the governments, | |
| promoting peace and stability and security so that when | |
| American troops come home, we leave behind strong and effective | |
| governments that can combat terrorism in both of those | |
| countries. And I think that that's an important role for the | |
| U.N. to play moving forward. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Schaefer. The U.N. peacekeeping operations often | |
| support U.S. interests. There's nobody, I don't think, that | |
| would deny that characterization. But I think that the analysis | |
| that was provided by the studies is subject to an inherent | |
| assumption that I don't think is true. That is the assumption | |
| that the United States would be conducting these operations if | |
| the U.N. weren't. I don't think that that's necessarily the | |
| case. I think that the decision would go to U.S. interests. But | |
| that being said, the U.N. operations there often do support | |
| U.S. interests, if not U.S. core interests that would lead to a | |
| U.S. direct intervention. | |
| But U.N. peacekeeping also has a number of flaws and there | |
| are a number of things that need to be addressed substantially. | |
| An OIOS report audit of $1 billion in U.N. peacekeeping found | |
| that over a quarter of it, $265 million was subject to waste, | |
| corruption, fraud, and abuse. A 2007 OIOS report examined $1.4 | |
| billion in peacekeeping contracts and turned up significant | |
| corruption schemes that tainted $619 million or over 40 percent | |
| of that amount in terms of the contracts due to corruption. | |
| An audit of the United States mission in Sudan revealed | |
| tens of millions of dollars lost to mismanagement, waste, and | |
| substantial indications of fraud and corruption. So there is a | |
| lot that needs to be done here and not enough has been done to | |
| address these problems. | |
| And on the issue of sexual abuse and misconduct, all too | |
| often the U.N. fails to hold these individuals to account for | |
| their sexual misconduct and their criminality. They are often | |
| sent home, but very, very rarely are cases pursued or | |
| individuals brought to trial or punished for their crimes. | |
| Mr. Cicilline. Thank you. I yield back the balance of my | |
| time. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. Now I'd like to give 5 minutes to | |
| the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Duncan. | |
| Mr. Duncan. Thank you, Madam Chairman. First off, let me | |
| say that I appreciate the comments made by the distinguished | |
| gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Smith, and I thank him for the | |
| passion with which he makes them. It hit home with me and | |
| actually answered one of the questions that I was going to | |
| address the panel. | |
| So let's turn back to the budgeting and financing issues, | |
| and I want to address my comments to Mr. Schaefer first. I | |
| agree with many of the members and presenters here today that | |
| reforms in U.N. financing and budget is an absolute necessity. | |
| I think that we must ensure as Congress and stewards of | |
| taxpayer dollars that they are well spent and well accounted | |
| for. | |
| So given the level of support that the United States gives | |
| to the U.N. and taken with the relatively small amount | |
| contributed by other Member States, could you address the | |
| possibility of a weighted voting system which would assure that | |
| the U.S. has more input on how taxpayer dollars are spent? I | |
| know you addressed those in your comments, but I'd like to have | |
| those on the record. | |
| Mr. Schaefer. There are a number of different options that | |
| could be explored in terms of giving major contributors more | |
| influence over U.N. budgetary decisions. In the 1980s, | |
| congressional legislation led the U.S. to seek weighted voting | |
| on U.N. budgetary matters so that if the U.S. pays 22 percent | |
| of the U.N. regular budget, it would have 22 percent of the | |
| weighted vote in terms of approving that budget. That was | |
| opposed by the U.N., but the Reagan administration succeeded in | |
| getting what was a compromise wherein the U.N. budget would | |
| only be adopted by a consensus vote. Through that process and | |
| the U.S. policy of a zero nominal growth budget, the United | |
| States was able to oppose budget increases and constrain U.N. | |
| budget growth in the late 1980s and 1990s. But it wasn't | |
| actually able to reduce things because even though the U.S. | |
| could stop an increase, other countries could stop a reduction. | |
| And so you essentially had a tug of war that kept things at a | |
| status quo. That consensus-based agreement, the informal | |
| agreement of adopting the budget by consensus has been | |
| shattered in recent years. | |
| The U.S. presented a number of proposals for reducing the | |
| U.N. budget and eventually a budget was proposed that the U.S. | |
| opposed. It voted no. And that budget was approved over the | |
| objection of the United States and so that consensus process no | |
| longer exists. And the U.N. could do this without any kind of | |
| repercussions because the teeth behind the consensus-voting | |
| agreement was legislation that said if the U.N. adopted a | |
| budget over the objection of the United States or without those | |
| processes in place, it would be subject to financial | |
| withholding. That legislation was removed in the early 1990s | |
| and so now there are no repercussion for doing that. | |
| So even though the consensus budget was successful in a | |
| certain way in terms of constraining the U.N. budget growth, it | |
| wasn't successful in what we would like to do, I think, in | |
| terms of trying to go through the U.N. budget and eliminate | |
| funding for duplicative or outdated mandates and spinning | |
| certain things out of the U.N. budget. | |
| So I would do a couple of things. First, I would try and | |
| seek a dual key approval of the U.N. budget, one approval by | |
| two-thirds of the U.N. Member States, but also requiring two- | |
| thirds approval of the contributions to the U.N. regular | |
| budget. So you have major contributors having to approve the | |
| budget alongside the bulk of the U.N. Member States. But more | |
| importantly, I would focus on trying to spin as much of the | |
| independent activities of the U.N. out of the regular budget, | |
| so you just focus it on the core support of the U.N. | |
| Secretariat of the Security Council of the General Assembly of | |
| the International Court of Justice and so forth, the core | |
| organizations of the United Nations. And spin out activities | |
| like the Human Rights Council and the regional commissions, the | |
| various human rights committees, UNEP, UNRWA, all these other | |
| organizations that are funded through U.N. regular budget and | |
| have them be funded voluntarily. That gives Congress much more | |
| discretion in terms of financing programs that it thinks | |
| support U.S. interests and withholding funding from programs | |
| that do not. | |
| Mr. Duncan. Thank you. In the balance of my time, I'd like | |
| to ask quickly, Ms. Rosett. You made a statement a minute ago | |
| that struck me that we don't have a good accounting of how the | |
| money is spent. | |
| What's the process of getting that started? I think | |
| congressional oversight would like to see a detailed accounting | |
| of the number spent in the U.N. | |
| Ms. Rosett. You would have to find a way to get the U.N. to | |
| actually put it in and produce. I would say the more specific | |
| request or demand is made outlining what really has to be there | |
| the better, because if you leave it to their discretion, you | |
| will end up with the again, I refer you to the back of my | |
| written testimony, the sample one-page document disclosing | |
| nothing that pretends to be financial disclosure. | |
| You would probably have to hand them the template, here's | |
| what we want and what you will find--I'll give you one example. | |
| The U.N. flagship agency, the U.N. Development Program which | |
| was involved in the North Korea Cash-for-Kim scam. They have | |
| procurement Web sites which look--they have a main Web site | |
| which looks quite neat, if you just look at it, until you start | |
| looking for things that actually matter. For instance, start | |
| asking and what exactly did they ship into Iran last year with | |
| their U.N. immunities, this agency that shipped missile, dual | |
| use parts that could be used for missile production to North | |
| Korea and you won't find anything. You would need to specify | |
| what--exactly what you want to see and I would strongly | |
| recommend, we see U.N. budgets and even that is like | |
| deciphering Sanskrit. | |
| Mr. Duncan. Thank you. | |
| Ms. Rosett. You would need to ask spending. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. Now I'd like to give 5 minutes to | |
| the gentlelady from California, Mrs. Bass. | |
| Ms. Bass. Thank you very much and I'd like to thank the | |
| witnesses for taking their time to present testimony today. I'm | |
| struggling with the idea of the U.S. withholding funding and | |
| wanted to know if you could articulate a little more. We have | |
| done that in the past and I'd like for you to elaborate on how | |
| we were able to impact reforms when we withheld funding before. | |
| And then if we did do that, what does that do to our standing | |
| internationally? | |
| And if you think about the Iran sanctions that made it | |
| through the Security Council, if we were to withhold funding, | |
| then what kind of position would that put us in when we then | |
| obviously want the U.N. to have those sanctions? And maybe you | |
| have some other examples of how we could impact reforms that | |
| didn't involve withholding funds. | |
| Mr. Schaefer. I'd be happy to talk about that. My written | |
| testimony I actually go through a number of historical | |
| instances where Congress has used its financial leverage to get | |
| the United Nations to adopt specific reforms. One was the | |
| Kassebaum-Solomon amendment in the 1980s which led to the | |
| consensus-based voting process which helped constrain U.S. | |
| budget growth in the 1980s and 1990s. A second was | |
| congressional withholding, demanding that the U.N. create an | |
| Inspector General equivalent organization. That led directly to | |
| the creation of the Office of Internal Oversight Services in | |
| 1994. And third was the Helms-Biden legislation wherein the | |
| United States agreed to pay U.S. arrears to the United Nations | |
| in return for certain specific reforms including reductions in | |
| the U.S. level of assessment for the regular budget and for | |
| peacekeeping. Under that agreement, the U.N. was supposed to | |
| reduce the U.S. peacekeeping assessment to 25 percent. It never | |
| reached that level, although it did get within 2 percentage | |
| points back in 2009. More recently, the U.N. has actually | |
| reversed pace and increased the U.S. assessment for U.N. | |
| peacekeeping to over 27.1 percent. So we're seeing some back | |
| tracking on the part of the U.N. in terms of the reforms that | |
| they agreed to in return for Helms-Biden. So you do see that | |
| there are specific pieces of congressional legislation and a | |
| specific response by the United Nations that is tied to that | |
| legislative effort. | |
| Other types of U.N. reform have been pursued, but often it | |
| is out of a fear that Congress may do something about the | |
| issue. For instance, the Volcker Commission was created to | |
| investigate the Iraqi Oil-for-Food Programme and that was | |
| created specifically because Congress was becoming very, very | |
| interested in pursuing the matter itself and so the U.N. took | |
| preemptive action and created the Commission. You could also | |
| say that U.N. peacekeeping rules and regulations, while | |
| insufficient still, were adopted in part because Congress was | |
| focusing through hearings and other pieces of legislation on | |
| that problem. | |
| I think Congress has a vital role to play for pressing for | |
| U.N. reform. In terms of how it affects our diplomacy, there's | |
| no doubt that pressing for budgetary cuts and U.N. reform | |
| ruffles feathers at the United Nations. They'd much rather | |
| spend their time focusing on other things. But that is a long- | |
| term issue and U.S. administrations have historically focused | |
| on short-term political priorities, passing a resolution, | |
| getting something immediately done to address a more imminent | |
| problem from their perspective. Congress has a longer-term | |
| perspective on this and I think that's where they complement | |
| each other. Congress can play a bad cop role, the | |
| administration and State Department diplomats can play a good | |
| cop role. Having Congress playing the heavy can actually | |
| improve prospects for reform in the United Nations. | |
| Ms. Bass. So then you're not necessarily suggesting that we | |
| completely defund the U.N.? | |
| Mr. Schaefer. No. | |
| Ms. Bass. Just threaten? | |
| Mr. Schaefer. No. I think we should withhold to try to spur | |
| specific reforms, but I'm not saying withhold every single dime | |
| that we give to the United Nations. I think that a lot of the | |
| things that the U.N. does are very useful and support U.S. | |
| interests. But there's no doubt in my mind that a number of | |
| reforms that have been advocated in the past remain undone. | |
| Some talk has been made about the U.N. Ethics Office. Yes, they | |
| created a U.N. Ethics Office, but almost immediately the | |
| authority of that office was challenged by the United Nations | |
| Development Program. The Ethics Office found that UNDP's | |
| retaliation against a whistleblower was illegitimate, demanded | |
| UNDP to take certain actions to repair that issue. And UNDP | |
| rejected the authority of the U.N. Ethics Office. The | |
| Secretary-General, instead of backing his own Ethics Office, | |
| backed UNDP. Now you have divergent ethics standards throughout | |
| the U.N. system and NGOs that analyzed this issue say they're | |
| completely inadequate and weak compared to international | |
| standards. | |
| More recently, the OIOS official in charge of | |
| investigations was charged with retaliation against two | |
| whistleblowers himself and he also rejected the authority of | |
| the Ethics Office. So there's a question of whether the Ethics | |
| Office even has authority within the U.N. Secretariat. | |
| Ms. Bass. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. And now I'd like to give 5 minutes | |
| to my good friend from California, Mr. Royce, of the | |
| Subcommittee on Terrorism and Nonproliferation. | |
| Mr. Royce. Brett, Mr. Schaefer, the case you were talking | |
| about, was that the North Korean case or the---- | |
| Mr. Schaefer. In terms of UNDP---- | |
| Mr. Royce. The example you just gave. | |
| Mr. Schaefer. Yes, it was. | |
| Mr. Royce. I'd like to ask Claudia, Claudia Rosett about | |
| this because she's reported for many years on this situation | |
| with respect to North Korea. One of the things I remember is | |
| talking to a defector from North Korea who had worked in the | |
| missile program. He said every time the regime ran short of | |
| hard currency it couldn't purchase on the market the equipment | |
| it needed for the missile technology, and had to wait until the | |
| regime could come up with more hard currency. The part that | |
| concerns me about this whole process is that $6 billion spent | |
| by the UNDP per year, and half of it goes to authoritarian | |
| regimes, according to Freedom House. We're learning more and | |
| more about how that money is spent in countries like Iran and | |
| Zimbabwe. We have concerns about how it's spent in Syria and | |
| Venezuela. But North Korea in particular is a case where if we | |
| thought that this currency was going for fine wine and sushi | |
| for the ``Dear Leader,'' it would be one thing, but the | |
| suspicions that the use of the hard currency and the | |
| documentary evidence, and that's what I'd like to get into here | |
| for a little bit with you Claudia, basically, it was a case of | |
| the checkbook for the UNDP being turned over to the regime. | |
| The CFO was picked by the regime. And when somebody blew | |
| the whistle on this, the UNDP unanimously, just as they have in | |
| every other case circled the wagons to basically try to cover | |
| this up. But North Korea was able to use the UNDP to procure | |
| dual use items in the name of development and then they got | |
| their hands on equipment that happens to also be used to | |
| develop and target and test missiles. And that's the part that | |
| really makes us wonder about the amount of contribution we made | |
| here in the United States, I think about $290 million a year or | |
| more than that. We're one of the top three donors into this | |
| program and yet we have no ability to get across to the UNDP | |
| that we're not going to finance our own suicide here by | |
| allowing hard currency to get in to the development of nuclear | |
| weapons or how to deliver them with missiles. | |
| The questions I'd ask Claudia is--I remember they | |
| temporarily shut this down and then it started right up. So how | |
| much money now is moving into North Korea? Is Kim Jong-Il still | |
| able to pick the CFO for this position? I don't know the answer | |
| to that. What's going on with the program today? How much do we | |
| know? | |
| Ms. Rosett. Well, once again we don't know enough. I will | |
| tell you a few things about the U.N. Development Program which | |
| ran this office in North Korea and is now running it again. Two | |
| years ago, its governing body at the U.N., a 36-member | |
| executive board was chaired by Iran. This was while Iran was | |
| having the murderous riots in the streets. Iran still sits on | |
| the board. When Cash-for-Kim broke, North Korea was sitting on | |
| the board. This is the flagship U.N. agency and so on. | |
| I am actually less concerned with the exact amount that | |
| is--of dollars that is going into this program in North Korea | |
| than with the abilities it gives the UNDP Office in Pyongyang | |
| and North Korea to bring in items or UNDP in Iran which we have | |
| no insight into right now. These places only become transparent | |
| when there's a major inquiry and it took more than 1\1/2\ years | |
| to pry out of the U.N. the information that finally told us | |
| that the UNDP had been bringing things like a satellite image | |
| receiving station into North Korea. North Korea is a starving, | |
| poor country. Certainly the people there need help. The | |
| government there puts the military first. You don't need to be | |
| bringing that kind of equipment in. That was clearly a North | |
| Korea shopping list which UNDP rushed to procure for them. | |
| One thing that Congress might do is ask the Bureau of | |
| Commerce to produce something I can't get. It's confidential. | |
| The export licenses for all U.N. purchasing abroad, because | |
| that will show you what the U.N. is requisitioning, at least in | |
| this country. You might get a glimpse. I venture to guess it | |
| would make your jaw drop. And it would be useful if other | |
| countries would produce similar lists. | |
| The point I think is really important to get across here is | |
| the U.N. is a brilliant machine for laundering goods and money | |
| across borders with no oversight. That needs looking at. | |
| Mr. Royce. We will do that, Madam Chair, this committee | |
| will do that and I appreciate the testimony of the panel. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. And now I would like to turn my | |
| attention to our good friend from Missouri, Mr. Carnahan. | |
| Mr. Carnahan. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I want to thank | |
| Madam Chair and ranking member for holding this hearing, our | |
| witnesses for being here. I believe it's very important that | |
| the United States is at the table at the U.N., at the table | |
| engaged in various international organizations. Even though the | |
| issues are complex, the parties are difficult and the | |
| bureaucracies entrenched at the U.N. I think we have to be | |
| looking at ways to best leverage the U.S. involvement and I | |
| think also the best exercise, congressional oversight. So I | |
| appreciate you all being part of this process. | |
| I wanted to ask Mr. Neuer, the Human Rights Council has | |
| properly come up in this discussion today. Last year, we had a | |
| hearing on the rise of anti-Semitism around the world and the | |
| council clearly came up in those conversations. There's been | |
| some very well directed and well founded criticisms of the | |
| council, but there also have been some successes and some | |
| improvements in the council with our involvement. I wanted to | |
| ask your assessment on the progress that's been made since we | |
| have rejoined and whether or not you think we could have made | |
| these improvements if we were not at the table. And do you | |
| think that were the U.S. to leave the council would that stymie | |
| further progress? | |
| Mr. Neuer. Thank you. The changes that have been made in | |
| our view have been mere specks on a radar screen for a | |
| situation that is abysmal. As I presented in my oral summary, | |
| in my written testimony, the state of human rights at the U.N. | |
| is a disaster at the Human Rights Council. And so in terms of | |
| U.S. involvement, as the ranking member read from my prepared | |
| statement, we certainly salute the determined efforts of the | |
| U.S. mission in Geneva. They are trying their best. They are | |
| doing what they can. They have tried to defend principles, to | |
| defend human rights groups who bring victims and so forth. | |
| There have been a number of resolutions which we welcome, on | |
| Ivory Coast recently, on Kyrgystan and on one or two others. | |
| These resolutions haven't had the strength of some other | |
| resolutions. They haven't all been condemnatory. The one on | |
| Kyrgystan, for example, was introduced regarding a situation | |
| that had happened under a previous government, so it wasn't | |
| necessarily the most courageous text in condemning a seated | |
| government and holding it accountable and that's been a pattern | |
| that we've seen on some resolutions that appear to be | |
| meaningful, but in fact, are critical of prior governments. | |
| So again, we encourage U.S. efforts and we want them to do | |
| far more. And as we've said, we still don't understand why | |
| nothing has been introduced on Iran. Actually, we've crunched | |
| the numbers. As you know, there is a resolution in General | |
| Assembly that is adopted each year. It's run by Canada. And it | |
| passes in the General Assembly in New York. And if you run the | |
| numbers, actually, in theory, if the missions in the Geneva | |
| would vote the same way, the 47 countries, you would have more | |
| yes votes than no votes. So actually with significant | |
| diplomacy, we could have a resolution on Iran that would pass. | |
| It wouldn't be easy. | |
| Why is it not being introduced? I don't know the answer to | |
| that question. I hope it will be introduced and I hope we'll | |
| see the creation of a special investigator on the massacres | |
| that have taken place in Iran. So to summarize, we have always | |
| supported robust engagement. UN Watch was founded by a former | |
| United States Ambassador, Morris Abram, who was a civil rights | |
| leader as well. We've always believed in the value of U.S. | |
| leadership and engagement and in our recommendations that we | |
| submitted here last year which was co-sponsored by bipartisan | |
| group, Representative Engel and Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen, we | |
| set forth numerous recommendations for what the U.S. working in | |
| concert with the European allies need to do and fundamentally | |
| it's to take the offensive. It's not to allow the abusers to | |
| veto and to only introduce that which will pass. That will | |
| really limit it to countries of little influence. As I said, | |
| Iran, China, Syria, the list goes on, have all been ignored. | |
| That is something that is not satisfactory. | |
| Mr. Carnahan. Thank you. And quickly to go to Mr. Yeo, with | |
| regard to the Millennium Development Goals, your colleague, | |
| Kathy Calvin, testified last year at our hearing. I'd like to | |
| hear your thoughts on how the U.N. can best partner with the | |
| private sector and what U.S. engagement has meant to those | |
| efforts. | |
| Mr. Yeo. Sure. I would say that as we think about shrinking | |
| national budgets for foreign aid and foreign assistance, | |
| public-private partnerships, including corporations around the | |
| world who wish to support the NDGs' and the U.N.'s work, are | |
| very important. It's something that we try to facilitate at | |
| UNF. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Carnahan. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. And now I'd like to give 5 minutes | |
| to my good friend from North Carolina, Mrs. Ellmers. | |
| Ms. Ellmers. Thank you, Madam Chairman, and thank you, | |
| panel, for being with us today. | |
| I just want to ask my questions in regard to some of the | |
| corruption issues and I'm going to address my question to Mr. | |
| Appleton. But I would like to state this. You just understand | |
| the concerns of the American people, the hard-working taxpayers | |
| who are the ones who are funding you, the U.N. And when it | |
| comes to these issues of corruption and misconduct, it's hard | |
| for us and I can tell, I know, I can tell you the people of | |
| North Carolina District 2 are very concerned about this issue. | |
| So again, to Mr. Appleton, you tried to oversee and help | |
| reform the U.N. and uncover over $1 billion in tainted | |
| contracts. And as thanks, you got fired and blocked from being | |
| hired for further jobs there. And many of your cases remain | |
| open and unaddressed at this time. Is this what generally | |
| happens when a U.N. investigator takes this course? And can you | |
| discuss with us today what happened to your appointment to be | |
| the lead investigator at the U.N.'s Office of Internal | |
| Oversight Services? | |
| Mr. Appleton. Thank you very much. I'm honored to have been | |
| asked to appear. I think in 3 minutes it's tough to describe | |
| the overall dynamic of oversight in the U.N. and conducting | |
| investigations, but I'll give it a shot. | |
| I think conducting true, real, deep investigations to | |
| ferret out the actual facts and circumstances is not a best way | |
| of career advancement in the U.N. And the reason why I think | |
| you'll see a number of Inspector General-type offices in many | |
| of these international organizations that do not--aren't very | |
| aggressive because you can see what happens. You do not make a | |
| lot of friends. And if you pick the wrong subject, it could | |
| have very fatal consequences. | |
| So what's critical for oversight in the U.N. is complete | |
| independence, not just operational independence, but budgetary | |
| independence. So ultimately, your funding is not at risk, your | |
| career is not at risk, your job is not at risk. Because | |
| otherwise, if it is, what advantage is it for you to pursue | |
| real, honest and objective investigations? | |
| So historically, I think I would agree with some of what | |
| Mr. Schaefer said about focus of this Congress. And when there | |
| is focus it can happen properly. There are episodes where | |
| sometimes privileges and immunities have been waived and cases | |
| have been advanced, but if there isn't an eye and a focus and | |
| attention on the issues, they're not, in my experience, not | |
| going to advance. You've got to have will and you've got to | |
| have an apparatus and machinery that protects investigators | |
| from retaliation and I'm not saying you don't hold them to a | |
| certain standard. There's no question. The investigations have | |
| to be genuine, integrous, unbiased. No question about that. | |
| And I think the way to challenge them is through a judicial | |
| mechanism that is properly functioning, so you need all these | |
| apparatus. A strong and effective independent oversight office | |
| has to be complemented and supplemented by an effective ethics | |
| office, a sound, judicial machinery, an effective appeals | |
| process, and effective sanctions and penalty regime. So all of | |
| that needs to be put in place. What had been started it seemed | |
| to have faltered and going into reverse. So the way in which | |
| the dynamic is it does not set the atmosphere for thorough and | |
| deep and intense inquiries. | |
| With respect to my own situation, I guess I would | |
| respectfully say that because the case is in the judicial | |
| system I really can't speak too much about it other than the | |
| fact that this was an example of a lack of independence of the | |
| Under Secretary-General who attempted to--went through proper | |
| procedures, conducted a recruitment exercise, presented my | |
| nomination and it was not accepted. So the argument certainly | |
| is and she's a forceful advocate of this that there's a real | |
| example of a lack of true independence in oversight. You need | |
| to be able to appoint your own staff. Thank you. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. And now I'd like to give 5 minutes | |
| to my good friend from Nebraska, Mr. Fortenberry. | |
| Mr. Fortenberry. Thank you, Madam Chair, for the time. | |
| Thank you all for coming today. Given the drama of the | |
| institution, perhaps we could start a new reality TV show and | |
| call it the U.N. Makeover or something like that. | |
| With that said and seriously, let me say I think it's | |
| important for the United States to belong to multi-lateral | |
| institutions. The world is complex, but without some platforms | |
| for the development of mutual understanding we could be in a | |
| worse off situation in spite of the effrontery that we | |
| sometimes have to endure in this particular multi-lateral | |
| entity. | |
| With that said, I'd like to point out what I perceive to be | |
| some of the U.N. strengths and I think some of you spoke to | |
| this. Perhaps you could confirm that. And then I'd like to try | |
| to unpack further the reforms that could be engaged that would | |
| actually strengthen the part of the institution that makes | |
| sense, but either jettison or rethink the other components that | |
| are causing such serious problems. | |
| I was in the country of Liberia a little while back and had | |
| a one-on-one chat with a U.N. peacekeeper, a Nigerian who was | |
| in a blue helmet, way out on an outpost in the interior of the | |
| country. He was very well informed as to what his mission was | |
| and how he would carry it out and I was impressed. And it does | |
| seem to me that the U.N. peacekeeping forces around the world | |
| provide a stabilization factor, sometimes imperfectly, but a | |
| stabilization factor. That is very important. | |
| Secondly, the U.N. is very well positioned to provide | |
| humanitarian outreach, particularly in crisis times and I think | |
| that's very important work and it seems to be a strength of the | |
| institution. | |
| Now with that said, we've talked about a lot of the other | |
| difficulties, one being the Human Rights Council. Since the | |
| United States has joined, we've not even offered a resolution | |
| condemning the human rights abuses of China and Cuba. And so | |
| with that said, how can we unpack this further that looks at | |
| the institution from the portions of it that are really viable, | |
| potentially reforms or gets us away from or shames or withholds | |
| money as you suggested, Ms. Rosett, in the areas that again | |
| give real effrontery? | |
| And third is, are there other multi-lateral institutions | |
| that can begin to replace that which cannot be reformed in the | |
| internal dynamics of the institution? Yes. | |
| Ms. Rosett. The internal dynamics have a certain | |
| mathematics and logic where it would be nice to believe, for | |
| instance, that the Human Rights Council can be sort of brought | |
| around like a super tanker. But if you actually look at the | |
| makeup of the General Assembly, we need to wait until the | |
| change of the character of the majority of nations on the | |
| planet before that actually happens. And the essence of success | |
| in the modern world really is competition and I think turning | |
| to some alternative grouping in which you are not obliged to | |
| haggle with Cuba and Russia and China over how to define human | |
| rights is something that might be very productive and at the | |
| end of the day would also honor the people whose rights you're | |
| actually trying to protect. Because as you know, on the ground | |
| it translates into complete abandonment. These things that | |
| sound academic when they're discussed in the council, talk to | |
| people from Zimbabwe who live under the kinds of rules that | |
| need to be addressed. | |
| So competition makes a great difference. One other note---- | |
| Mr. Fortenberry. Do you see any current institution that | |
| might fulfill that role or some emerging fledgling institution | |
| that could do that in the near term? | |
| Ms. Rosett. Absolutely, where you are not constrained by | |
| the U.N. membership problems. One other note, peacekeeping also | |
| can have the very dangerous, dangerous drawback, that it sounds | |
| as if something is being done. At the moment, the ramped up | |
| UNIFIL mission in Lebanon, the peacekeepers in Lebanon who | |
| remember were needing rescue from their bunkers after Hezbollah | |
| built up weapons nests around---- | |
| Mr. Fortenberry. I said albeit imperfectly. | |
| Ms. Rosett. They're re-arming again. And I think it is a | |
| question that needs to be very seriously asked, is it more | |
| dangerous to have them there giving the illusion that they are | |
| protecting things, waiting until the next rescue. | |
| Mr. Fortenberry. Thank you, I'm sorry, I've run out of | |
| time. | |
| Mr. Schaefer. I think it's just important to note that the | |
| U.N. is not the only multi-lateral option and that multi- | |
| lateral activities are not legitimate only if they go through | |
| the United Nations. Take a look at an organization like the | |
| Proliferation Security Initiative which was introduced by the | |
| Bush administration to counter trafficking in weapons of mass | |
| destruction. If you take a look at ad hoc interventions by the | |
| African Union, by NATO forces around the world, you can do | |
| peacekeeping, you can do interventions outside of the U.N. | |
| framework. | |
| And if the reforms are not adopted to implement membership | |
| standards for the Human Rights Council, I think the U.S. and | |
| other countries should seriously consider creating a non-U.N. | |
| human rights body so that you can keep human rights violators | |
| off of that body and really dig into the human rights issues | |
| and confront human rights abusers. | |
| Mr. Fortenberry. That may be the answer here. I'm sorry, | |
| I'm out of time. Thank you. | |
| Mr. Fortenberry. Thank you and without objection, the full | |
| written statements of all of our briefers will be made as part | |
| of the record. Members have up to 5 days to submit their | |
| statements for the record and to my good friend from | |
| California, do you have any more witnesses, sir? | |
| Mr. Berman. I do, but I didn't bring them with me. | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Thank you. In the full interest, do we have | |
| any more witnesses in the back room? Can somebody check before | |
| I gavel this down? | |
| Mr. Berman. Members? | |
| Mrs. Schmidt. Members, I mean. I'm new at this. No more | |
| members, all right. This briefing is now closed and again, | |
| members have up to 5 days for written statements and your | |
| prepared remarks as well. Thank you very much gentleman and | |
| lady for your attention in this matter. | |
| [Whereupon, at 12:16 p.m., the briefing was concluded.] | |
| A P P E N D I X | |
| ---------- | |
| Material Submitted for the Briefing Record<greek-l>Notice deg. | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <greek-l>Minutes deg. | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT> | |
| <all> | |
| </pre><script data-cfasync="false" src="/cdn-cgi/scripts/5c5dd728/cloudflare-static/email-decode.min.js"></script></body></html> | |