On June 17, the House approved, 221-184, a bill (H.R. 2745) that would encourage the United Nations (UN) to initiate a number of administrative and financial reforms. The House International Relations Committee approved the measure on June 8 (see The Source, 6/10/05).
Sponsored by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), the United Nations Reform Act would require the State Department to withhold up to 50 percent of the United States’ assessed UN dues if the UN does not enact 39 goals that are laid out in the bill. Of particular interest to women, H.R. 2745 would mandate the UN to adopt a single, uniform Code of Conduct for all personnel serving in UN peacekeeping operations. The bill would require the establishment of a permanent, independent investigative body to investigate allegations of misconduct, and would include professionals with experience investigating sex crimes. The measure would require that peacekeeping personnel provide immediate medical assistance to victims of sexual abuse or exploitation, but states that the individual found guilty of misconduct should have sole responsibility for providing long-term care or treatment. In addition, the bill would require the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations to maintain a centralized database to track cases of misconduct, and would ensure that personnel who have been found guilty of misconduct are permanently barred from participating in future peacekeeping operations.
H.R. 2745 also would mandate that any state that has failed to uphold the values embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights would be ineligible for membership in any UN human rights body.
During consideration of the bill, the House approved, 375-29, an amendment by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) that would encourage the UN to suspend a member state if its government engaged in acts of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity. The amendment also would call for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation to stem such abuses, and would authorize the establishment of an international commission of inquiry to investigate such abuses.
The House also approved, by voice vote, an amendment by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) that would call for the establishment of a democracy fund to provide assistance to countries that respect and uphold human rights and are determined to be emerging democracies or democracies in transition.
Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) offered a substitute amendment that would have authorized the State Department to withhold up to 50 percent of the United States’ dues if the secretary certified that certain reforms had not been met. The substitute was defeated, 190-216.
The House also rejected the following amendments:
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