UNITED NATIONS: U.S. Cries Foul Over EU Proposal

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 8 1996 (IPS) - The United States is crying foul over a proposal by the European Union (EU) to penalise nationals of countries which do not pay their dues to the United Nations.

The type of punishment or discrimination the EU proposes “raise serious issues of conformity with the (U.N.) Charter and contravene sound administrative and financial principles,” the U.S. delegation said in a four-page rebuttal released Thursday.

If the EU has its way, the United Nations will not hire any U.S. nationals until Washington pays its accumulated dues to the world body.

The 15 EU member countries have proposed that countries owing money to the United Nations should be not only shut out of U.N. jobs but also barred from bidding on U.N. contracts for goods and services.

“Once it is decided that it is acceptable to discriminate in the areas of staffing and recruitment, there is no end to the possible justifications for discrimination,” argues the Unitef States.

“If there were no ‘right’ of membership to equal treatment, nothing would stand in the way of any measures which might be adopted on a wide variety of reasons,” it adds.

If the United Nations accepts the EU contention, the world body could also decide not to appoint high-level staff from countries which are violators of human rights. The United Nations could also reject appointments from countries which fail to comply with Security Council mandates, support terrorism or which are judged ‘bad’ in any other way, stated the United States.

The United States also says the United Nations could also decide not to purchase goods and services from states which are affluent, or states which do not provide special inducements and incentives.

The only justifiable penalty, the United States says, is Article 19 of the U.N. Charter which calls for a suspension of the right to vote in the General Assembly if a country’s arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the preceding full two years.

U.N. Spokeswoman Sylvana Foa said that the United States had not defaulted on its right to vote because it had recently made payments towards 1994.

Article 19 does not extend the penalty to other aspects of membership. The 1945 San Francisco conference which drafted the U.N. Charter rejected a proposal that called for a member in arrears to forfeit its seat on the Security Council.

The U.S. also argues that procurement is governed by the fundamental principle that “the organisation must obtain the best value for money.”

Therefore one cannot wholly exclude potential bidders on the basis of financial contribution.

The proposed EU measures also violate specific Charter provisions and U.N. principles governing recruitment, says the United States.

“In particular, they are at odds with the standards and policies underlying international civil service.”

The United States points to Article 101 of the Charter which states that staff recruitment should be strictly made on the basis of individual qualifications.

The Article is subject only to the other principle that it be “on as wide a geographical basis as possible,” noted the United States.

In a set of wide-ranging proposals last year, the EU also proposed that defaulters be ineligible for elections in the General Assembly or the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Meanwhile, the EU has also proposed several “positive financial incentives” to reward members in good standing. One of the proposals calls for the creation of a mechanism of discount on contributions paid in advance or on time.

All troop-contributing countries who have paid their dues should be reimbursed first, says the EU.

As justification for ‘concrete measures,’ the EU says that national parliaments and the public would never be able to understand that the world body was incapable of resolving its own financial crisis.

“A failure on our part would have serious consequences for the credit and image of our organisation and its future”.

A high-level working group of the General Assembly is currently holding closed-door sessions to explore ways of resolving the financial crisis facing the world body.

Last week 35 of the 185 member states lost their voting rights under Article 19 of the Charter because they failed to pay their dues to the world body.

Of the 35, 17 were from Africa: Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea- Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone and Somalia.

Other defaulters include Afghanistan, Bolivia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Iraq, Latvia, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Uzbekestan, Vanuatu, Yemen and Yugoslavia.

Foa said that the U.N. Committee on Contributions was holding a special session to look at the appeals of some member states which said their arrears were due to circumstances beyond their control.

“And they’re looking at these and turning a sympathetic ear to those countries that are having serious problems,” she said.

Foa said that in 1995, 22 countries had lost their voting rights in the General Assembly, the U.N.’s highest policy making body.