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UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly on Saturday approved a
two-year UN budget of $4.17 billion despite the only rejection from
the United States.
The budget, proposed by UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki Moon, was approved by a vote of 142 to one.
Ban welcomed the approval and also expressed his
regret that the budget was not adopted by consensus, marking a break
with tradition after 20 years, the UN spokesman’s office said in a
statement.
The Secretary-General urges all member states to
return to consensus decision-making and to demonstrate a greater
sense of flexibility and compromise, beyond individual national
interests and in common cause of multilateralism for the good of
humankind.
The US negative vote was due to a special fund
of $6.7 million in the budget for a follow-up to the 2001 World
Conference Against Racism.
The US and Israel delegations withdrew from the
third World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa,
protesting critics during the conference on Israel for alleged
racist acts.
Developing countries insisted that the $6.7
million be funded from the regular UN budget rather than by
voluntary contributions.
Discussions on the budgets lasted for weeks due
to the US objections. Ban’s proposed budget was $4.2 billion, the
amount that represents real growth of $23 million, or half a
percentage point, over the previous budget period of 2006 and 2007.
“That is not much, considering the demands
upon us,” Ban said earlier, citing “difficult diplomatic and
security challenges in Lebanon, Somalia, Myanmar and the Democratic
Republic of Congo” and “longer term challenges” of fighting
poverty, climate change and HIV/AIDS
as well as protecting human rights.
“Never has the world so needed a strong United
Nations. Yet never have our resources been stretched so thin,” he
said.
Separately, the assembly also approved $1.28
billion to fund a 26-strong peacekeeping force of UN-African Union
for Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region until next June 30.
Another $182.44 million has been approved for a
UN force to be deployed in Chad and the Central African Republic.
The United States is the world body’s largest
contributor, covering around
22 percent of the regular budget.
The United Nations receives its annual funding
from its 192 member states which make contributions in accordance
with their respective assessed ability.
-- Xinhua
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