UNITED NATIONS, Aug 29 (IPS) – The Communist Manifesto of Previous Occasions, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, begins with an implicit warning: “A specter is haunting Europe – the specter of communism. ghost.
At this time, one other specter haunts — this time on the United Nations — the specter of a second Trump presidency.
When Trump first took workplace in January 2017, he both defunded, withdrew from or denigrated a number of United Nations companies and their associates, together with the World Well being Group, the United Nations Aid and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the World Commerce Group ( World Commerce Group), the United Nations Academic, Scientific and Cultural Group (UNESCO) and the United Nations Human Rights Council, and so on.
Ought to the United Nations put together for an additional political nightmare if Trump is re-elected as president?
In accordance with a CNN report final October, Trump had mentioned that if re-elected to the White Home, he would reinstate and increase the journey ban on folks from Muslim international locations, droop refugee resettlement, and actively deport these from Muslim international locations. .
He cited Hamas’ assaults on Israel as the explanation for its hard-line immigration insurance policies. Trump additionally mentioned he would ban journey from Gaza, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya “or another place that threatens our safety.”
In accordance with a joke circulated within the New York Occasions, when Trump first took to the rostrum within the Normal Meeting Corridor, he appeared on the a whole bunch of overseas representatives from 192 international locations and requested: “How the hell did you get into this?” Nationwide? “The United Nations bar, the delegates’ lounge.
There are additionally rumors of a brand new slogan to advertise tourism in the course of the Trump presidency: “Come to us with a one-way ticket and we’ll evict you at no cost.”
In the meantime, in a 2017 White Home assembly, Trump apparently mentioned that each one Haitians “have AIDS”; that Nigerians ought to “return to their huts in Africa”; and that each one Haitians “have AIDS.” ;Nigerians ought to “return to their huts in Africa”; and so on. In accordance with the New York Occasions, it questioned why the USA would welcome folks from Africa’s “cesspool international locations.”
He additionally confirmed his ignorance by asking if Britain is a nuclear energy and if Nepal (pronounced Nipple by him) and Bhutan (pronounced Button) are a part of India?
Requested about the potential of Trump being re-elected for a second time period as president, former UN assistant secretary-general and UNICEF deputy chief government Kul Gautam informed IPS: “Sure, there can be appreciable potential risks to the UN system and Plenty of unpredictability.
Nonetheless, he famous that the extent of hazard will rely on what occurs within the U.S. Congress. If Trump wins and the U.S. Home of Representatives and Senate are additionally captured by Republicans, the United Nations might face deadly dangers.
Additionally, recall that earlier this 12 months, Home Republicans eradicated funding for the U.N. common finances and greater than a dozen U.N. entities, together with UNICEF and the World Well being Group.
Subsequently, the worst-case situation for the United Nations could be for Trump to win the White Home and for Republicans to have a majority in each homes of Congress.
But when one or each homes of Congress are managed by Democrats, Trump alone can not trigger irreparable hurt to the United Nations. Nonetheless, the elimination of U.S. funding for sure United Nations companies will trigger nice hurt to those United Nations entities and the important providers they supply, “My journey from the mountains of Nepal to the halls of the United Nationss”. (www.kulgautam.org).
Stephen Zunes, professor of political science and director of worldwide research on the College of San Francisco, who has written extensively about U.N. politics, informed IPS: “Sure, it will certainly be catastrophic, and the U.N. has a really sturdy fame for these companies and their associates. The funds offered will certainly be minimize.”
However it’s value noting that Biden has canceled U.S. funding for the United Nations Aid and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and threatened to cancel funding for any group that has Palestine as a full member. Zunes mentioned that though Harris is mostly much less hostile to worldwide authorized norms than Biden is, I see no signal that Harris will reverse these insurance policies.
“Given Trump’s disrespect for home legal guidelines and establishments, it’s no shock that he has an analogous disdain for worldwide legal guidelines and establishments,” he declared.
Samir Sanbar, former UN assistant secretary-general and former head of the Division of Public Data (DPI), informed IPS that along with welcoming senior UN officers at Trump Tower reverse the UN headquarters, the previous US president was additionally completely satisfied to sit down in Principal corridor.
Nonetheless, he mentioned sure U.N. companies and funds have been at severe threat of being blocked from funds beneath Trump’s presidency, significantly UNRWA, which supplies help to Palestinian refugees and asserts their proper of return. As well as, WHO and probably UNICEF will face cuts in help, particularly in Gaza.
“I learn someplace that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would quite clear Gaza of its two million folks with a view to flip it right into a vacationer vacation spot,” Sambar mentioned.
Commenting on the USA’ on-and-off threats to chop funding to the United Nations, Gautam mentioned the drastic cuts in U.S. funding to the United Nations could be a blessing in disguise and would enable the United Nations to significantly discover a stronger different long-term funding mechanism for the United Nations and scale back Its heavy reliance on U.S. funding.
With a purpose to keep away from a everlasting risk and blackmail to the United Nations by the USA and another member states, “I’m absolutely in favor of resurrecting, reconsidering and reformulating a really inventive initiative proposed by former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme again in 1985. proposal.
Palme proposed that no nation needs to be required or allowed to contribute greater than 10% to the UN finances.
this may imply important scale back The U.S. share of the U.N. finances fell from 25 p.c to 10 p.c; contributions from most different international locations elevated barely.
“I help Palme’s proposal to cut back the United Nations’ over-reliance on a number of massive donors and, accordingly, scale back the undue affect of those international locations in appointments to senior United Nations positions and different decision-making processes.”
“At this time, many United Nations actions profit from voluntary contributions from governments, the non-public sector and philanthropic foundations. I consider we should severely discover extra such progressive potentialities, together with income from the worldwide commons and the Tobin tax, to Liberate the United Nations from the everlasting risk of arbitrary cuts and disinvestments by main donors.
It’s value recalling that throughout the bigger worldwide monetary system, out of a world financial system of $103 trillion per 12 months and a worldwide navy finances of $2.4 trillion, the United Nations’ common annual finances is lower than $4 billion, whereas the overall finances of the United Nations system is Funding for humanitarian help, growth cooperation, peacekeeping operations, technical help and different fundamental normative capabilities is lower than $50 billion per 12 months.
“This can be a modest quantity in response to the big challenges the United Nations is requested and anticipated to assist deal with. To place it in perspective, the overall annual expenditures of the United Nations system-wide are far lower than a month’s protection expenditures of the USA, and fewer Greater than the US navy help to Israel or Ukraine alone.
Gautam asserted that it will be troublesome to attain outcomes akin to these achieved by the United Nations and worldwide monetary establishments with comparable investments, utilizing a a lot bigger share of bilateral help and nationwide budgets.
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