March 21, 2012 Over the last three years, the United States has returned to good financial standing at the United Nations by honoring our obligations and funding our UN regular budget and peacekeeping dues. While we understand and appreciate the current budget situation and the difficult choices facing Congress, we ask that you maintain America’s commitment to multilateral engagement by providing $2.164 billion to UN Peacekeeping through the Contributions to International Peacekeeping Activities (CIPA) account, and including language that allows us to pay our peacekeeping dues at the full 27% assessed rate. We also ask that you support $249.1 million for the Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) account, as requested in the President’s budget, and ensure continued strong U.S. engagement with the rest of the UN system by supporting the President’s request of $1.57 billion for the Contributions to International Organizations (CIO) account. Paying our UN dues on time and in-full allows the U.S. to effectively leverage the world body to advance our core national security, foreign policy, and economic interests, while simultaneously delivering significant savings to American taxpayers. This is particularly true with regards to UN peacekeeping operations, which constitute the second largest deployed military force on the planet. Each day, nearly 120,000 UN peacekeepers operating under the auspices of 15 separate missions promote core U.S. interests and values—stabilizing some of the world’s most volatile conflict zones, preventing the collapse of fragile states, facilitating humanitarian relief for disaster and warravaged communities, protecting human rights, and promoting democratic governance and free and fair elections. These missions, which must be approved by the United States, require very little from the U.S. in terms of personnel contributions but are critical to ensuring our national security. Further, by sharing the burden of safeguarding global security, these activities not only advance American interests and keep our troops out of harm’s way, but also reduce the likelihood of the U.S. military’s involvement and the large expenditures that would undoubtedly accrue. This was confirmed by Admiral Mike Mullen, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who observed that, “[United Nations] peacekeepers…help reduce the risks that major U.S. military interventions may be required to restore stability in a country or region. Therefore, the success of these operations is very much in our national interest.” Given the serious economic challenges currently facing our country, it is important to recognize that UN Peacekeeping is an extremely cost-effective investment—by helping to address outbreaks of conflict and instability that may affect U.S. interests so our own forces don’t have to, UN peacekeepers ultimately save American taxpayers money. Currently, UN peacekeepers are working closely with the U.S. to consolidate recent democratic gains in Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire, strengthen government capacity and prevent conflict in South Sudan, address violence and facilitate humanitarian aid in Darfur, and provide reconstruction and security assistance in Haiti. Peacekeepers will continue to play a pivotal role in ensuring continued progress on these goals over the coming year, and it is therefore crucial that our nation fully fund our obligations to UN Peacekeeping. As a result, we request that you provide $2.164 billion for CIPA to meet these financial commitments in FY’13. While this number is slightly higher than the $2.098 billion included in the President’s budget, the revised figure reflects the UN Security Council’s decision late last month to dramatically expand troop levels for the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia. Among other core duties, this mission is working alongside Somali security forces to defeat al-Shabaab militants and restore order to the strategically located country after more than two decades of anarchy. The troop level increase was strongly supported by the U.S. because it is critical to our national security interests, and the rise in costs associated with the growth of this mission must be reflected in FY’13 funding levels. In light of this expansion, we also ask that you provide $249.1 million for the PKO account, which has been an important source of funding for the African Union’s Somalia mission and other voluntarily funded peacekeeping activities in recent years. In addition to meeting our peacekeeping obligations, we request that you support the President’s FY’13 request for the CIO account, which funds U.S. dues payments to a number of multilateral programs, including the UN Regular Budget. U.S. contributions to the UN Regular Budget help promote a variety of American foreign policy, national security, and economic objectives in a highly cost-effective manner. For example, the regular budget finances special UN political missions in Iraq and Afghanistan that are currently working to assist reconstruction efforts, provide vital humanitarian and development aid to the Iraqi and Afghan peoples, encourage the
development of stable and effective government institutions, and facilitate open elections. These political missions are playing a crucial role in bolstering U.S. efforts to rebuild and stabilize these societies, and are taking on an even more prominent role in achieving these goals with the recent departure of U.S. forces from Iraq and the ongoing drawdown of military forces from Afghanistan. In addition, while these missions serve a number of key U.S. interests, other UN Member States pay roughly 80 percent of their costs, making them a wise investment in this lean budgetary environment. The CIO account also helps finance a number of vital UN specialized agencies. These include the World Health Organization (WHO), responsible for leading the global response to public health emergencies, monitoring outbreaks of infectious disease, and spearheading global vaccination campaigns; and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which seeks to prevent, detect, and respond to illicit uses of nuclear material, and has played a pivotal role in global efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program. In the coming year, these and other UN agencies will continue to serve vital economic, security, and global health priorities, and therefore must continue to receive sufficient levels of funding through CIO. While we understand and appreciate the difficult budgetary choices currently facing Congress, we believe that U.S. contributions to the UN are an extremely cost-effective way to advance many of our nation’s most vital long-term interests on the world stage. As such, we hope you will support the FY’13 funding levels outlined for the CIPA, CIO, and PKO accounts in this letter, and would like to thank you for your consideration. Sincerely,
Better World Campaign Center for International Policy Citizens for Global Solutions EarthAction & 2020 Vision Enough Project Freedom House Global Health Council Human Rights First International Relief & Development International Stability Operations Association Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy Open Society Policy Center Peace Action
Physicians for Human Rights Refugees International The Advocates for Human Rights United to End Genocide United Nations Association of the United States of America United Nations Association of the National Capital Area Americans for UNESCO Universal Human Rights Network U.S. Council for International Business U.S. National Committee for UN Women Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom