U.S.-U.N.: Bad Blood Flows Between New York and U.N.

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 14 1997 (IPS) - A U.S. organisation that promotes the interests of the United Nations says it would be a monumental tragedy if the world body opted to move some of its offices out of New York as a result of its tug-of-war with New York City over diplomatic parking.

“It is not surprising that other major cities such as Bonn are actively seeking to woo the United Nations away from New York,” says Alvin Adams Jr., president of the New York-based U.N. Association of USA (UNA-USA). “It would be a grave mistake for this city and for this nation to allow this unique organisation to leave our shores.”

Speaking on behalf of an organisation of more than 30,000 members in 175 U.S. cities, Adams says that the battle between the United Nations and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani smacks of “election year politics”.

“It is vital that this discussion rise above local politics and that we see the issue for what it is,” Adams adds.

Giuliani, who said last week that he would have no regrets if the world body decided to leave New York, is running for a second term as mayor in a city with a love-hate relationship with the U.N. diplomatic community.

A new law that came into force Apr. 1 says that U.N. diplomats who fail to pay parking fines accumulated over 12 months will lose their diplomatic license plates.

Countries have argued at the United Nations that the law represents a clear violation of a 1947 international agreement which spells out the privileges and immunities granted to U.N. diplomats in New York. Some, including France and Russia, have called for a shifting of U.N. offices to cities outside the United States.

And the offers have been coming.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien last week offered to host some of the U.N. offices in Montreal if and when the world body decided to opt out of New York. The city of New Rochelle, in New York’s Westchester County has offered to host UNICEF.

Germany has also made offers. Bonn has offered space to the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), and the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). The invitation was greeted with little or no enthusiasm by the General Assembly in 1993. But the offer included rent-free accommodation and an increase in the German government’s annual financial contribution to the world body.

Germany also offered to subsidise relocation costs to the tune of 240 million dollars and to provide free German language classes for employees moving to Bonn.

U.N. Spokesman Fred Eckhard says he does not think New York City wants to lose the three billion dollars a year generated by the diplomatic community.

“We are not there yet,” Eckhard said, adding that it would be expensive for the U.N. headquarters to move out of New York.

The UNA-USA president says that while the Mayor’s office, some local media, and a few New Yorkers have focused recently on the matter of diplomatic parking violations, the issue of the United Nations’ real importance both to the city and to the United States has been obscured.

“As home to the world body, New York City gains immeasurable international prestige and furthers its importance as a world city,” he says. Adams adds that losing the status of host country could weaken U.S. leverage for U.N. reform.

In an effort to downgrade the importance of the United Nations even further, Giuliani told reporters Sunday the world body was not even a major tourist attraction. But the United Nations refuted this by pointing out that the number of visitors to U.N. headquarters in New York had risen from 389,610 in 1994 to 415,205 in 1995, and 420,370 in 1996.

And the UNA-USA says that the United Nations, its agencies, and its diplomatic and consular corps contribute about 3.2 billion dollars a year to vital areas of the city economy such as food, entertainment, and real estate. Of the one billion dollars in contracts issued by the U.N. Secretariat and New York-based agencies in 1995, the U.S. share was 311 million dollars, the Association says.

The UNA-USA notes that for every dollar the United States contributed to the UNDP in 1995, U.S. companies got back more than two dollars in UNDP procurement orders.