U.S. loses UNESCO voting right
Nation pulled financing over Palestinians’ admittance
PARIS — The United States lost its vote at UNESCO on Friday, two years after cutting off its financial contribution to the organization over the admission of Palestinians as full members. The move undermined America’s ability to exercise its influence in numerous countries around the globe through the United Nations agency’s educational and aid programs, according to Western diplomats and international relations experts.
Under UNESCO’s constitution, any country that fails to pay dues for two years loses its right to vote in the UNESCO general assembly. The United States ceased all support for the agency in 2011. Congress enacted laws in the 1990s decreeing that the United States stop providing money to any U.N. agency that accepts Palestinians as full members.
It was the first time that the United States voluntarily had given up its vote in an organization to which it belongs, diplomats in Paris said.
“I deeply regret this,” Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s director general, said in an interview Friday at the agency’s headquarters. “This is not some kind of punishment on behalf of UNESCO for nonpayment. It’s just our rules.
“We’ve lost our biggest contributor; this has a bearing on all our programs,” she said, adding that it was not just a matter of financing.
She said the agency would miss the voice of the United States on issues such as freedom of expression and girls’ education. Bokova, a Bulgarian who has led the organization since 2009, traveled to Washington in 2011 to try to persuade U.S. lawmakers to change the legislative language after the initial funding cutoff.
President Barack Obama’s administration tried to push through such a change last year but failed.
The U.S. ambassador to UNESCO, David Killion, speaking at the UNESCO general conference, now underway in Paris, noted that the United States had been involved in the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization since its beginnings in 1945 and promised that it would remain involved.
He praised UNESCO for its role in consensus and peace building, saying that the agency was important for U.S. work abroad.
“UNESCO is a critical partner in creating a better future,” said Killion, adding that the Obama administration was committed to getting funding restored so that the United States could pay its dues and regain its position as a voting member.
Before withdrawing its financial support, the United States provided about $70 million, 22 percent of the agency’s annual budget, and the suspension was felt almost immediately. Some UNESCO staff members were laid off and programs and projects delayed, including some that could have potentially benefited the United States. In an effort to make up the shortfall, Bokova created an emergency fund and got contributions from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Norway and other countries.
Diplomats predicted subtle effects of the loss of the U.S. vote, as well as concrete ones.
For instance, it is less likely that two U.S. sites on the list to become World Heritage sites certified by UNESCO will win approval. One is an ancient civilization site known as Poverty Point, in northeastern Louisiana, and the other is a group of Spanish missions dating from the 18th century in San Antonio. The Texas project was expected to create at least 1,000 jobs, and both sites were expected to benefit from increased tourism.
More far-reaching is the reduction in the United States’ ability to exercise its soft-power influence throughout the world, said Esther Brimmer, a former assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, who teaches at George Washington University.