[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 15435-15436]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  THE IMPORTANCE OF THE UNITED NATIONS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 20, 2006

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of 
the House several key moments over the last several weeks where the 
United Nations has been called upon by the international community to 
address issues of grave global concern and has taken significant steps 
to increase its own efficiency and efficacy.
  In the last week alone, the U.N., which is located in my 
congressional district, has been asked to deal with the nuclear threat 
from North Korea, hostilities in Lebanon, and the deteriorating peace 
and humanitarian situation in Gaza. In fact, as I speak, a U.N. team, 
led by Under Secretary General Vijay Nambiar, is on the ground in the 
Middle East helping defuse the current crisis. They have already met 
with the prime ministers of both Israel and Lebanon and the foreign 
ministers of the Arab League. Over the next few days, they may return 
to Lebanon and, perhaps, travel to Syria, Jordan, and the Palestinian 
territories before returning to New York to brief the U.N. Security 
Council. Secretary Rice called for the creation of this team and has, 
along with the President, the National Security Advisor, and a host of 
other administration officials, publicly supported it since its 
inception. In fact, during a press briefing in Germany on July 13, 
Secretary Rice called the Secretary-General's mission ``the best 
opportunity now for deescalation of this crisis.''
  The U.N. Security Council has also taken action against Iran and 
North Korea, two regimes that the United States has deemed a serious 
threat to international security and stability but has been unable or 
unwilling to address directly on its own. Last Saturday, the Security 
Council voted unanimously to demand that North Korea suspend all 
ballistic missile launches and related activity and required all member 
states to prevent the import or export of funds or goods that could 
fuel Pyongyang's missile or weapons of mass destruction programs. And, 
as reported in Tuesday's New York Times, the Security Council, 
including China and Russia, is currently developing a resolution based 
on a previous agreement to require Iran to suspend its nuclear programs 
or suffer actions under article 41, chapter 7, of the U.N. Charter, 
which allows for sanctions.
  In addition, at the request of President Bush and the Iraqi 
Government, the United Nations announced earlier this month that it 
will help create an ``International Compact for Iraq'' to provide a 
platform for international support.

[[Page 15436]]

The Deputy Secretary General has already traveled to Baghdad to begin 
discussions with Iraqi President Jalal Talibani. The U.N., through a 
similar ``Compact'' for Afghanistan, raised billions of dollars for 
relief and reconstruction and built an international consensus on ways 
to improve the economy, security, and human rights situation in 
Afghanistan. Today, in part because of the U.N.'s role as a platform 
for international cooperation, Afghanistan has its first democratically 
elected parliament in more than 20 years; 4 million refugees have 
returned; 5 million children are back at school; 60,000 combatants have 
rejoined society; and the economy is growing.
  These are only the most recent of a long list of ways in which the 
U.N. helps to safeguard American peace and prosperity. The U.N. 
currently maintains the world's second-largest standing army, which is 
keeping the peace in some of the world's most hostile environments. It 
is working to detect any outbreaks of avian flu and develop the first 
line of defense against a possible world pandemic, as the President 
noted in his National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza. It is providing 
humanitarian assistance and saving lives in volatile regions of the 
world. And it is developing an international legal framework and 
bringing those guilty of crimes against humanity to justice.
  In addition to taking a central role in addressing these global 
problems and maintaining an increasingly important presence around the 
world, the U.N. has taken significant action over the past few months 
to look inward and improve its own efficiency, transparency, and 
accountability.
  Over our July 4 recess, the U.N. General Assembly--with U.S. 
consensus--agreed to a slate of broad reforms, many of which had been 
recommended by former State Department Under Secretary for Management 
and current U.N. Under Secretary General for Management Christopher 
Burnham, that include an upgrade to the U.N.'s information technology 
systems to help better analyze and organize real-time financial data 
from computer systems spread around the globe and an acceptance of 
internal accounting standards. These particular actions were made 
against a backdrop of broader reform over the last 6 months, during 
which time the U.N. dismantled and replaced the discredited Human 
Rights Commission; increased staff and funding for internal auditing; 
created an Ethics Office; and enacted whistleblower and financial 
disclosure policies that are more far-reaching that those in the U.S. 
Government.
  Mr. Speaker, the U.N. is an indispensable presence in the world, and 
it is absolutely necessary for maintaining peace and prosperity in the 
United States. Were the U.N. not to exist or were it unable to fully 
fund its programs, the U.S. would be forced to confront a rising tide 
of issues that are simply too numerous, complex, costly, and 
diplomatically implausible for us to handle on our own. The U.N., as 
the world's platform for international engagement, can only work when 
member states, especially the United States, actively engage with the 
organization and each other. Today--and in the future when we discuss 
U.S. dues to the U.N.--we will be sending a message to the 
international community. We must make sure, in the interest of all 
Americans, that the message is one of cooperation, engagement, and 
support for the United Nations.

                          ____________________