Posted on 12/24/2003 1:58:27 PM PST by GeneD
Filed at 1:15 p.m. ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The General Assembly has approved a budget for the United Nations for the next two years that for the first time tops $3 billion, U.N. officials said on Wednesday.
The budget, adopted by the 191-nation assembly by consensus late on Tuesday, would authorize the world body to spend $1.58 billion a year in 2004 and 2005, for a total of $3.16 billion.
The two-year budget has grown by about 15 percent over the past decade and was nearly flat between 1994 and 2001, with most of the decade's increases reflecting inflation.
The new budget compares to $2.97 billion for 2002-2003.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan requested $3.01 billion for 2004-2005, but much of the increase over his request reflects adjustments for the falling U.S. dollar.
To help cope with future dollar fluctuations, the assembly authorized Annan to seek dues from some countries in currencies other than U.S. dollars over the next three years.
The assembly approved 62 of the 117 new posts that Annan requested but also gave him new powers to shift staff and funding to deal with changing priorities.
The budget provides more money primarily for development programs and particularly for the special needs of Africa, where many countries are coping with civil wars, endemic poverty and soaring AIDS caseloads.
It also funnels extra money to drug control, crime prevention and human rights, in line with Annan's requests.
The United Nations is funded primarily through dues from its 191 member-nations, and the assembly extended for another three years the assessment scale adopted in 2000 despite complaints from some developing nations that their dues had jumped significantly under the new scale.
Assessments were revised in 2000 at the insistence of the United States, which wanted its dues cut.
Under the new scale, Washington nonetheless pays 22 percent of the general U.N. budget, while Japan pays 19.5 percent. Among permanent security council members in addition to the United States, Britain pays 6.1 percent, France 6.0 percent, China 2.05 percent and Russia 1.1 percent.
U.N. peacekeeping missions and international war crimes tribunals in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia are funded through separate budgets.
Three billion. Three billion measely dollars. That's chump change in this day and age, the kind of money that Uncle Sam has down in his sofa cushions. It shows just how little real power the UN has. Yet Hillary and the Dems think we should "internationalize" the Iraqi occupation and turn over control to an organization that has a budget smaller than most of our state governments.
They can't monitor or prevent the spread of WMD's.
They are incapable of enforcing their own resolutions
The U.N. is corrupt to the core
The U.N. has shown very little concern for individual freedom, the very thing we fight and die for. If the U.N. doesn't care about freedom, we shouldn't care about them. I say give them an eviction notice and let those windbags up their in New York City move to Havana, Cuba. We need that useless organization like we need another 9/11
The UN doesn't pay most of the bills. See, member states pay dues - the US pays the most - and then the US and whatever other countries donated troops pay the troops, and donate the food the UN gets kickbacks on, the money from the oil for food scam is still unaccounted for and the slave trade is really profitable...this 3 billion doesn't begin to cover the real cost for keeping up this parasitic gang of extortionists.
Yes they could if they weren't so corrupt and interested in job security. If they SUCCEEDED at anything...they couldn't keep in jobs and hire MORE cronies as they're trained could they?
The only positive things I can say about the U.N. is their ability to provide food and clothing for the cold and hungry, plus they're good at coordinating and supervising national elections. As far as them being some kind of Global Security organization, That's a joke. The U.N. is the ideal refuge for Tyrant's, once they are denounced by the U.N. they are assured at least 2 or more years to decieve the world before the next denounciation.
The U.N. needs to assume their rightful place in history, right next to the League Of Nations
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