When U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced on Christmas Eve that America would cut a significant amount of $285 million from the institution’s Operating Budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year, very little attention was paid to the speech.
Although the cut was hailed as a “a step in the right direction” it also implied that there could be more to come.
As stated in the previous article, “the U.S. is the single largest contributor to the U.N. funding” contributing “over 22% of the budget” an amount of “around $3.3. billion annually.” Of the $5.4. billion fiscal budget for 2016-2017, the country paid about $1.2. billion.
The United States is also the largest single financial contributor, at 28.5 percent, to a separate budget for United Nations peacekeeping operations, an amount which totaled $6.8 billion for the 2017-2018 budget finalized in June.
U.S. announced a $285 million funding cut for the U.N. budget on 24 December 2017. Credit: Reuters
Upon announcing the cut, Ambassador Haley pointed out to the less-than august organization that, “The inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known,” further noting that the U.S. “Will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked.”
Problems compounding the U.N. are much larger than inefficiency and overspending. The global institution has, in the past come under fire over accusations of rape in Haiti and Africa including sex trafficking and the spread of disease in countries of their missions.
Haitian victims of a cholera epidemic brought and spread by UN Peacekeepers from Nepal. Credit: Joshua Partlow/Washington Post
In August, 2016, the U.N. finally admitted that they “played a role” in the cholera epidemic in Haiti which resulted in 10,000 deaths and infected hundreds of thousands more.
The acknowledgment after years of denial that a battalion of Nepalese Peacekeepers in 2010 introduced a lethal strain of cholera comes after a scathing independent report, according to a report by the New York Times.
The U.N. Peacekeeping in Haiti was also accused raping women as well as involvement in a sex ring with underage boys and girls between the ages of 9-12 years from 2004 to 2007.
18-year old Janila in Jacmel, Haiti, watches as her daughter cries was raped at gunpoint and left pregnant by a Brazilian peacekeeper at 16 years old. Credit: AP/Dieu Nalio Chery
At least 134 Peacekeepers from Sri Lanka together with others from Bangladesh, Brazil, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Uruguay were later exposed as part of a broader pattern of sexual abuse and exploitation since the mission began in 2004.
According to the New York Times report, the U.N. Haiti Cholera Policy was “morally unconscionable, legally indefensible and politically self-defeating,’ adding that it was “also entirely unnecessary.”
A man throws a stone at a UN van in Haiti after allegations they sexually abused an underage boy in the area. Credit: AP/Ramon Espinosa
The report went on to argue that, “The organization’s continuing denial and refusal to make reparations to the victims upholds a double standard according to which the U.N. insists that member states respect human rights while rejecting any such responsibility for itself. It provides highly combustible fuel for those who claim that the U.N. peacekeeping operations trample on the rights of those being protected,” he concluded.
A Tammy Bruce article first published by Washington Times. Further editing by Manyika Review.
