[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 77 (Monday, June 13, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H4376-H4377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE UNITED NATIONS REFORM ACT OF 2005

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kuhl of New York). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak 
to the Members about the United Nations Reform Act of 2005, which the 
House will be considering on Thursday of this week. I would like to 
commend the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde), whose skillful 
leadership was essential in both crafting and moving this important 
bill through committee, and I would like to thank the House leadership, 
whose commitment and support to this legislation of global importance 
has been critical to moving it swiftly to the House floor for 
consideration.
  The United Nations Reform Act of 2005, Mr. Speaker, aims to institute 
long-overdue U.N. reforms by addressing and correcting the numerous 
scandals and institutional failings that have characterized the United 
Nations, a flawed structure that gives rise to discrimination and 
negligence at best, and corruption, profiteering, and collusion at 
worst.
  The Oil-for-Food scandal is a primary example of these failings. As a 
result of the mismanagement of the contracts, out right graft and 
corruption when the administration of the Oil-for-Food program by the 
U.N. staff and by Saddam Hussein was implemented, it not only made a 
mockery of the humanitarian aid program, but it collected an estimated 
$20 billion while the U.N. turned its head. Yet the Oil-for-Food 
program is but one example of an institution that is rife with 
financial scandal.
  Some other notable examples include in 1995, for example, scandal 
consumed the Kenya office of UNICEF, the U.N. body created to provide 
assistance to the world's disadvantaged children, when that office 
defrauded or squandered up to $10 million in agency funds. Another 
example, in 1996, a senior U.N. official at the United Nation's 
Conference on Trade and Development, the body providing technical 
assistance for the least developed countries, was investigated on 
suspicion of embezzling between $200,000 and $600,000.
  Another example, in 1997, 16 past or present employees of the United 
Nations Development Programme, which was created to help countries 
design and carry out development programs in poverty eradication, 
employment creation, and sustainable livelihoods, they were placed 
under investigation after more than $6 million was siphoned off over an 
8-year period.
  To combat these deficiencies, the United Nations Reform Act before us 
this week has built in budget certification requirements, 
accountability provisions to address the mismanagement and the 
corruption, including: holding the United Nations Secretary General 
accountable to certify that the United Nations' budget is maintained at 
the approved level; two, requiring that the U.N. budget be more 
transparent by requiring more details on the budget categories; three, 
creating an Office of Internal Oversight Services and the Board of 
External Auditors, including the ability to appoint a special 
investigator and staff to investigate matters involving senior United 
Nations officials and also creating an Office of Ethics which will be 
responsible for creating and managing a code of ethics for all United 
Nations employees, including education and annual training and 
publishing of U.N. staff salaries.
  The scandals involving U.N. peacekeeping are even more horrible than 
these. One example, Mr. Speaker, while

[[Page H4377]]

I finish this Special Order, of these terrible crimes is appalling and 
unacceptable, but, unbelievable, the appearances of crimes involving 
sexual misconduct on the part of U.N. peacekeepers over the past decade 
have become frequent to include incidents of, for example, the Congo, 
where the U.N. peacekeepers and civilian personnel stand accused of 
widespread exploitation in a sexual manner of refugees; two, Burundi, 
where two U.N. peacekeepers were suspended following allegations of 
sexual misconduct; three, Sierra Leone, where U.N. peacekeepers were 
accused by Human Rights Watch of systematic rape of women; and, four, 
Bosnia, where the U.N. police mission was accused of misconduct, of 
corruption, and sexual trafficking.
  This is just horrendous. The U.N. repeatedly and reportedly quashed 
an investigation into involvement of U.N. police in enslavement of 
Eastern European women in Bosnian brothels.
  In response, the bill before us, Mr. Speaker, is going to have some 
provision to deter these horrible incidents and bring a level of 
respect to the United Nations, and I hope that our colleagues will 
support this Hyde bill this week.
  Among others, it includes provisions that mandate the: adoption of a 
minimum standard of qualifications for senior leaders and managers; 
adoption of a uniform Code of Conduct which applies equally to all 
personnel serving in U.N. peacekeeping operations regardless of 
category or rank; written acknowledgement by personnel sent as 
peacekeepers that misconduct may include immediate termination of 
participation in an operation; and establishment of a permanent, 
professional, and independent investigative body dedicated to United 
Nations peacekeeping.
  It is monstrous that an international organization charged with 
operating peacekeeping missions around the world and with assisting 
nations to rebuild after major turmoil has experienced an alarming 
number of scandals involving sexual exploitation, rape, sex 
trafficking, misconduct, harassment, and other criminal acts.
  However, not only has systemic mismanagement and corruption been a 
recurring characteristic of the United Nations, but the U.N. 
organization is being corroded by discrimination against Israel and 
anti-Semitism as never before.
  The viciousness with which Israel continues to be attacked at the 
U.N., and the reluctance of Member states to defend Israel or to accord 
it the same treatment as other countries, suggests that there is a 
considerable anti-Semitic component behind the policies pursued in U.N. 
forums.
  In addition to multiple manifestations of anti-Semitism at the U.N., 
the most notorious being the 1975 U.N. General Assembly resolution 
equating Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish 
people, with racism, Israel continues to be subject to debilitating 
forms of discrimination within that organization.
  Israel is not allowed to present candidacies for open seats in any 
U.N. body, is not able to compete for major U.N. bodies, and cannot 
participate in U.N. conferences on human rights, racism and a number of 
other issues.
  By contrast, there are several U.N. groups devoted to ``Palestinian 
Rights,'' and a disproportionate representation of Palestinian issues 
through different committees and commissions.
  This Act seeks to end discrimination against Israel in the United 
Nations system and ensure fairness and objectivity in the United 
Nations' handling of Israeli-Palestinian issues by: expanding WEOG to 
afford Israel permanent membership in this group with full rights and 
privileges; mandating a State Department review and assessment of the 
work performed by the various United Nations commissions, committees, 
and offices focusing exclusively on the Palestinian agenda, followed by 
the submission of a report recommending areas for reform, including 
proposals for the elimination by the U.N. of such duplicative entities 
and efforts; and withholding proportional U.S. contributions to the 
United Nations until such time as the recommendations are implemented.
  The Commission on Human Rights and its feeder body, ECOSOC, are also 
emblematic of these deficiencies within the U.N. system.
  There remains great difficulty in securing support for condemnations 
of gross human rights violators, when the worst offenders sit on the 
actual Committee, dictate the agenda and block any meaningful 
resolutions from being adopted.
  Yet, there have been few condemnations and measures, if any, 
addressing the continuing gross human rights violations by serial 
abusers such as Iran and Syria.
  While gross human rights offenders such as Syria, Libya, Iran, and 
Saudi Arabia have been members of this U.N. human rights body, these 
regimes have not been censured, condemned, or held accountable in any 
way for their deplorable human rights record.
  In response, among other provisions, this Act stipulates that: a 
Member State that fails to uphold the values embodied in the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights or are under U.N. Security Council 
sanctions be ineligible for membership on any United Nations human 
rights body; secret voting in the Economic and Social Council should be 
abolished, and a recorded vote must be conducted to determine such 
membership of the Commission; and countries that meet that criteria 
should be ineligible for membership on the Commission.
  Similarly at the IAEA we remain concerned that serial proliferators 
continue to be accorded full rights and responsibilities within this 
organization.
  A few years ago, proliferators such as Iran and Iraq, who was under 
Security Council sanctions at the time, were scheduled to serve as 
Chairs of the Conference on Disarmament.
  Iran, a nation who continues to be under investigation by the 
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) due to its breaches and 
failures of its safeguards obligations, served on the Board of 
Governors of the IAEA.
  Countries who are in non-compliance of their obligations under 
international agreements and in violation of the rules that serve as 
the basis for individual U.N. bodies, cannot and must not be entrusted 
with the enforcement of those very rules and obligations.
  This Act addresses these and other concerns by seeking the 
establishment of: an Office of Compliance and Enforcement within the 
Secretariat of the lAEA to function as an independent body of technical 
experts that will assess the activities of Member States and recommend 
specific penalties for those that are in breach or violation of their 
obligations; and a Special Committee on Safeguards and Verification to 
advise the IAEA Board of Governors on additional measures necessary to 
enhance the agency's ability to detect undeclared activities by member 
nations.
  Furthermore, it seeks the suspension of privileges for Member States 
that are under investigation, or are in breach or non-compliance of 
their obligations, and seeks to establish Membership criteria that 
would keep such rogue states as Iran and Syria from serving on the IAEA 
Board of Governors.
  The IAEA section of this Act reinforces U.S. priorities concerning 
the safety of nuclear materials and counter proliferation by: calling 
for U.S. voluntary contributions to the lAEA to primarily be used to 
fund activities relating to Nuclear Security or Nuclear Verification 
and inspections; by seeking to prioritize funding for inspection to 
focus on countries of proliferation concern; by seeking to prevent 
states-sponsors of terrorism, proliferations, and countries under IAEA 
investigation from benefiting from certain IAEA assistance programs.
  The United Nations Reform Act of 2005 also ensures transparency in 
the IAEA budget process by calling for a detailed breakdown of 
expenditures.
  The U.N. is accountable to neither taxpayers nor voters.
  As a safeguard, the United Nations Reform Act of 2005 targets crucial 
areas of the U.N. organization to ensure that U.S. taxpayer money 
hauled off to Turtle Bay is spent in an efficient, transparent, and 
accountable manner.
  Additionally, the bill empowers the Administration to fix the U.N. by 
making it very clear that U.S. funding to that body will be drastically 
cut unless the U.N. takes the appropriate actions to save itself.
  I look forward to Thursday's debate and ask my colleagues to render 
their full support to this much-needed legislation.

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