US stripped of Unesco voting right
paris — The United States and Israel lost their Unesco voting rights on Friday after suspending funding to the organisation in 2011 when Palestine was admitted, a source from the UN agency said.
Neither the United States nor Israel “presented the necessary documentation this morning to avoid losing their right to vote”, the source said on condition of anonymity.
Both countries stopped paying their contributions to the global cultural agency after Palestine was made a Unesco member two years ago, provoking a major financial crisis at the agency and putting hundreds of jobs in jeopardy.
Under Unesco rules, the US and Israel had until Friday to pay their dues or automatically lose voting rights.
US contributions represented 22 per cent of the agency’s overall budget.
paris — American influence in culture, science and education around the world took a highprofile blow Friday after the US automatically lost voting rights at UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Unesco, after missing a crucial deadline to repay its debt to the world’s cultural agency.
The US hasn’t paid its dues to the Paris-based Unesco in protest over the decision by world governments to make Palestine a Unesco member in 2011. Israel suspended its dues at the same time and also lost voting rights on Friday.
Under Unesco rules, the US had until Friday morning to resume funding or explain itself, or it automatically loses its vote. A Unesco official, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the issue, said nothing was received from either the US or Israel.
The suspension of US contributions, which account for $80 million a year — 22 per cent of Unesco’s overall budget — brought the agency to the brink of a financial crisis and forced it to cut or scale back American-led initiatives such as Holocaust education and tsunami research over the past two years.
It has worried many in Washington that the US is on track to becoming a toothless Unesco member with a weakened voice in international programs fighting extremism through education, and promoting gender equality and Press freedoms.
Some fear that a weaker US presence will lead to growing anti-Israeli sentiment within Unesco. “We won’t be able to have the same clout,” said Phyllis Magrab, the Washington-based US National Commissioner for Unesco. “In effect, we (now won’t) have a full tool box. We’re missing our hammer.”
The Unesco tension has prompted new criticism of US laws that force an automatic funding cutoff for any UN agency with Palestine as a member. The official list of countries that lose their votes was expected to be read aloud on Saturday before the entire Unesco general conference.
Israel’s ambassador to Unesco, Nimrod Barkan, told The Associated Press that his country supported the Unites States’ decision, “objecting to the politicisation of Unesco, or any international organisation, with the accession of a non-existing country like Palestine.”
Unesco may be best known for its programme to protect the cultures of the world via its Heritage sites, which include the Statue of Liberty and Mali’s Timbuktu.
But its core mission, as conceived by the US, a co-founder of the agency in 1946, was to be an anti-extremist organisation. In today’s world, it tackles foreign policy issues such as access to clean water, teaches girls to read, works to eradicate poverty, promotes freedom of expression and gives people creative thinking skills to resist violent extremism.
Among Unesco programmes already slashed over funding shortages is one in Iraq that was intended to help restore water facilities. In danger was a Holocaust and genocide awareness programme in Africa to teach about non-violence, non-discrimination and ethnic tolerance, using the example of the mass killing of Jews during World War II.