Wednesday, May 16, 2001
|
Wednesday, May 16, 2001 |
|
What's going on at the United Nations? By AMY RILEY Today, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on the State Department Authorization Act (H.R. 1646) for fiscal years 2002 and 2003. The bill will provide $8.2 billion dollars in funding authority to pay for the foreign policy activities of the U.S. State Department. Included in this budget are appropriations for U.S. participation in various United Nations initiatives. Just as Congress was preparing to vote, in a striking show of stupidity, duplicity, or audacity, I'm not sure which, the United Nations voted to oust the United States from its seat on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. If the shock of our ouster wasn't enough, the United Nations dug their hole a little deeper by seating known human rights violators China, Libya, and Sudan in our stead. What followed was a firestorm in Congress. There has been a storm brewing for some time now among conservative American citizens at the increasingly far-reaching arm of the U.N., but the United Nations ouster of the U.S. from the Commission on Human Rights seems to have ignited a wild fire in the U.S. Capitol. And all the while, President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell are throwing buckets of water out to douse the flames and cool off the tempers in Congress. When H.R. 1646 came to the floor last Thursday, representatives voted on three amendments to the bill which were all aimed at sanctioning the United Nations by withholding U.S. money in the form of "owed" dues. Two of the amendments passed and one failed. The Tom DeLay amendment passed by a margin of 282 to 137, and provides the legal protection to guarantee that "American citizens, especially U.S. military personnel, are not prosecuted by the International Criminal Court for actions undertaken by them on behalf of the U.S. government unless and until the Senate ratifies the treaty establishing the Court." This amendment will cloak American service men and women abroad in the same constitutional protections afforded them on U.S. soil, which is of particular importance to men and women serving on United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Henry Hyde amendment passed by a margin of 252 to 165. This "sanction" by the House of Representatives puts a freeze on the repayment of $244 million in back dues until the United States' seat on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights is restored. Hold your applause. The State Department Authorization Act (H.R. 1646) still guarantees the payment of $582 million in other back "dues." I use the term lightly, because our participation in the United Nations is voluntary, after all. The third amendment, sponsored by Thomas Tancredo, failed by a margin of 193 to 225. This amendment attempted to remove language currently in H.R. 1646 which authorizes the payment of the necessary funds (essentially back dues, or initiation fees for membership, if you will) for the U.S. to rejoin the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The amendment also attempted to remove language "expressing the Sense of Congress that the president should renew the membership ... in UNESCO." Since the amendment failed, the language reauthorizing our membership in UNESCO will remain in the full bill. All I can figure is that the people who support the federalization of education are the same people who support the globalization of education as the tres chic cause celebre du jour. Unfortunately the trends in education espoused by UNESCO have little to do with imparting knowledge and everything to do with instilling attitudes and behaviors that are necessary to perpetuate a global government. One of the biggest roles of UNESCO is the management of a World Heritage Sites list. These sites are designated as significant to all humanity in terms of understanding ourselves and our purpose, and are thereby designated to be protected for the future and our posterity. The United Nations has designated a number of sites on U.S. soil as World Heritage sites, such as the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, Yosemite National Park, Mesa Verde, the Statue of Liberty, the Great Smoky Mountains, and Independence Hall, to name a few. (For the full list, go to www.unesco.org/whc/heritage.htm.) So if you find yourself out hiking in the wilderness and encounter a sign that reads, "Property of United Nations, A Designated World Heritage Site," I suppose you should be grateful that it doesn't also read, "No Trespassing." I have grave concerns about renewing our UNESCO membership. When we suspended our participation in 1984, it was because of the organization's "growing politicization and anti-Western bias," among other things, according to Brett Schaefer, a Fellow at the Center for International Trade and Economics at The Heritage Foundation. I don't see that much has changed since then, do you? You might want to call your representative and urge him to reconsider realigning with UNESCO. [Your comments are welcome at: ARileyFreePress@aol.com.]
|
||