BY ALISON DELLIT
The United States government suffered a humiliating defeat on May 4 when it was voted off the United Nations Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission's inception.
It's not as if Washington didn't do its lobbying. Competing for one of three positions allocated to the First World, US diplomats had written vote guarantees from 43 of the 53 countries eligible to vote. But in the secret ballot, only 29 of these votes came through. France, Austria and Sweden were elected, France received 42 votes, Austria 41 and Sweden 32. The secret ballot enabled countries normally unable to criticise the US to retaliate.
Initiated by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1947, the commission has long been used by the United States to pursue its propaganda campaign against left-wing and anti-imperialist governments, or any government which fails to jump on command.
So far this year, the US has aggressively pushed the commission to condemn both China and Cuba. The resolution against China failed, but after three months of arm-twisting it succeeded in passing one against Cuba, despite the fact that Cubans are healthier and more educated than most African Americans.
Simultaneously with using the UN to wage ideological war on Cuba, the Bush administration has pulled out of the Kyoto agreement which limits greenhouse gas emissions, attacked the World Court and resurrected the spectre of the arms race by dumping the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.
These moves have angered many United Nations diplomats who are frustrated with the US's blatant policy of supporting the UN when it was able to manipulate it, and undermining it when it can't.
This strategy is not unique to the Bush administration. Both Bush and former president Bill Clinton routinely withheld dues from the United Nations, as a mechanism of control. Both Bush and Clinton have attempted (sometimes unsuccessfully) to use the UN to assist Israel in its war of extermination against the Palestinians. In early May, the UN rejected the Palestinian demand for an independent "observation" force to be present in the occupied territories.
The UN has provided cover and assistance to numerous US military interventions, from Korea in 1950, the Congo in 1960, Iraq in 1991 to the Balkans in 1998.
The response in the United States to the dumping has been predictably irate. Secretary of state Colin Powell has hinted at a European "plot" to lessen the power of the US. US commentators from liberal to conservative have railed against the "outrage" that has been committed for "daring to criticise human rights abusers".
Blaming the decision on the US's support for Israel in Palestine, William Safire wrote in the May 5 New York Times, "The UN nations did not enjoy being shown up publicly to be a pack of hypocrites in approving a dictatorship's offence and condemning a democracy's defence". He went on to call for punitive measures against the UN.
The United States Senate voted on May 10 to withhold US$244 million in overdue dues. Speaking for the bill, Californian Democrat senator Tom Lantos said, "This will teach countries a lesson. Actions have consequences. If they would like to get this payment, they will vote the United States back on the commission. If they don't, it will cost them $244 million".
The House also voted to pursue a campaign in the UN to abolish secret ballots.