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Financial Crisis and the Future of the United Nations*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Norman J. Padelford
Norman J. Padelford
Affiliation:
M.I.T.
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Extract

The financial difficulties of the United Nations have become one of the pressing issues of contemporary international affairs. They have roots that extend to the heart of the politics of the Organization and its procedure. Beyond this they raise serious questions about the ability of the institution to function effectively in the future. To grasp the complex problems associated with the UN financial situation it is necessary to view the matter in some perspective.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , July 1963 , pp. 531 - 568
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1963

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References

1 The most generally useful sources on UN finances are the Annual Reports of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions to the General Assembly, the Financial Reports and Accounts for each calendar year combined with the Report of the Board of Auditors, and the Official Records of the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. Much useful information will also be found in the Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, 87th Congress, 2nd Session, on S. 2768, a Bill to Promote the Foreign Policy of the United States by authorizing the Purchase of United Nations Bonds and the Appropriation of Funds therefor, June 27 to July 26, 1962 (cited hereinafter as Purchase of United Nations Bonds). See also Padelford, Norman J., The Rising Cost of United Nations Membership (Cambridge, M.I.T. Center for International Studies, C/63–2, 1963)Google Scholar, one of a series of papers prepared for the Brookings project.

2 General Assembly Resolution 1691 (XVI), December 18, 1961, set the apportionment rates for 1962, 1963, and 1964.

3 Hearing before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Senate, U.S., Review of United States Participation in the United Nations, 88th Congress, 1st Session, March 13, 1963, 35–36.Google Scholar

4 Purchase of United Nations Bonds, 340. The United Nations military operation in the Congo is referred to in this statement as ONUC; the Anglicized initials UNOC will be employed elsewhere.

5 See Resolutions 1732 (XVI) and 1733 (XVI), adopted December 20, 1961. The final vote on the first resolution, to provide for the Congo financing, was 66–13–15; on the resolution for UNEF, 61–11–24. The XVIIth General Assembly was unable to decide how to finance the UNOC costs after July 1, 1962, and passed the problem on to a Special Working Group that was asked to report not later than April 1, 1963. Meanwhile, standing obligations were to be met out of voluntary contributions and proceeds from the bond sale. See Resolutions 1854 (XVII), December 19, 1962, and 1864 (XVII) and 1865 (XVII), December 20, 1962.

6 The limitation placed by the United States Congress upon American contributions will be found in Public Law 495, July 10, 1952, 82nd Congress, 2nd Session, as follows:

“No representative of the United States Government in any international organization after fiscal year 1953 shall make any commitment requiring the appropriation of funds for a contribution by the United States in excess of 33 1/3 per centum of the budget of any international organization for which the appropriation for the United States contribution is contained in this Act: Provided, however, that this section shall not apply to the United States representatives to the inter-American organizations.

“No representative of the United States Government to any international organization of which the United States is now a member shall, unless specifically authorized in an appropriation Act or other law, make any commitment requiring the appropriation of funds for a contribution by the United States in excess of 33 1/3 per centum of the budget of such international organization.” (66 Stat. 549, 550–51.)

7 United Nations Review, X (March 1963), 2.

8 This argument is summarized in the report of the Working Group of 21, Financing of United Nations Peace-Keeping Operations, UN Document A/5407, March 29, 1963, 4–5.

9 Resolution 1731 (XVI) on Administrative and Budgetary Procedures of the United Nations on the report of the Fifth Committee (A/5062), passed on December 20, 1961, by a vote of 52–11–32. The text will be found in Purchase of United Nations Bonds, 390; and the list of countries voting on the resolution in ibid., 458–59.

10 The text of the Report of the Working Group of 15 is contained in UN Document A/4971 (XVI), November 15, 1961.

11 The opinion, entitled “Certain Expenses of the United Nations (Article 17, par. 2 of the Charter), Advisory Opinion of 20 July 1962,” will be found in International Court of Justice, Reports (The Hague 1962), 151–308. The opinion will also be found in Purchase of United Nations Bonds, 469–598. Summaries of the opinion will be found in United Nations Review, IX (August 1962), 11–13, and International Organization XVI (Autumn 1962), 865–71.

12 See Gross, Leo, “Expenses of the United Nations for Peace-keeping Operations: The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice,” International Organization, XVII (Winter 1963), 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Purchase of United Nations Bonds, 479.

14 The vote is recorded in UN Document P/V.1199. The text of the resolution, 1854 (XVII), adopted at the 1199th plenary meeting, December 19, 1962, will be found in United Nations Review, X (January 1963), 103.

15 Resolution 1863 (XVII), Working Capital Fund for the Financial Year 1963, section B, par. 1, 1201st plenary meeting, December 20, 1962; text in ibid., 107.

16 Resolution 1854 (XVII), cited above, section B, paragraphs 1–6.

17 Resolution 1864 (XVII), United Nations Emergency Force, adopted at 1201st plenary meeting, December 20, 1962. Text in ibid., 107. Resolution 1865 (XVII), United Nations Operations in the Congo, adopted at 1201st plenary meeting, December 20, 1962, ibid.

18 Resolution 1866 (XVII), Convening a Special Session of the General Assembly, adopted at the 1201st plenary meeting, December 20, 1962; text in ibid., 107–8.

19 For the report of the Working Group, see Document A/5407, March 29, 1963, Financing of United Nations Peace-Keeping Operations.

20 Numerous proposals were discussed in the former Working Group of 15; for its Report, see Document A/4971 (XVI), November 15, 1961. These, and other suggestions advanced outside of the UN, are analyzed at some length in a research memorandum prepared by the author for the Brookings Institution, entitled Financing Future United Nations Peace and Security Operations (Cambridge, M.I.T. Center for International Studies, C/62–22, October 15, 1962). Reference may also be made to three other research memoranda prepared for the Brookings project, containing discussions of proposals relating to the main sources of UN funds: Stoessinger, John G., The Financing of United Nations Peace and Security Operations (Washington, Brookings Institution, October 1962Google Scholar, mimeograph); Walter R. Sharp, The Voluntary Programs (same); Norman J. Padelford, Some Thoughts on the Financing of the Special Voluntary Programs (same). Various proposals are also discussed in Singer, J. David, Financing International Organization: The United Nations Budget Process (The Hague 1961), 138–46.Google Scholar

21 Congressional Record, 87th Congress, 2nd Session, April 5, 1962, 5611.

22 See Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, First Report to the General Assembly at Its Fifteenth Session, GAOR, XVth Session, Supplement No. 7 (A/4408), 1960, 9.

23 See Stoessinger, John G., “The Price of Peace: Who Should Pay?” Saturday Review, November 3, 1962, 21–22.Google Scholar An estimate of the rates that would be payable by various states will be found in Padelford, , Financing Future United Nations Peace and Security Operations, Table III, 63.Google Scholar The pages that follow this table suggest some possible modifications in this plan.

24 Gardner, Richard N., “Financing the UN,” Department of State Newsletter (April 1963), 23.Google Scholar

25 Christian Science Monitor, March 7, 1963.

26 United Nations Review, IX (September 1962), 4–5, 39–42.

27 These are discussed in a research paper for the Brookings project by Rosenfeld, Marcia, entitled Existing Sources of Independent Revenue for the United Nations (Washington, Brookings Institution, October 1962Google Scholar, mimeograph).

28 An extensive examination of these and other private support efforts will be found in another research memorandum for the Brookings project by Padelford, Norman J., Private Support of the United Nations (Cambridge, M.I.T. Center for International Studies, C/62–11, October 1962).Google Scholar

29 Singer, J. David, Financing International Organization, 145.Google Scholar See also Holcombe, Arthur N., Strengthening the United Nations (New York 1957), 259–61.Google Scholar

30 A number of these proposals are set forth in an offset memorandum by Staley, Eugene, “Direct Revenue for the United Nations” (Stanford, Stanford Research Institute, November 13, 1961).Google Scholar Some are further developed by John H. E. Fried in a research memorandum for the Brookings Institution, entitled United Nations Revenue Through Levies on International Activities (Washington, Brookings Institution, November 1962, mimeograph). The field as a whole is critically appraised by Taubenfeld, Howard J. in a paper entitled Long-Range Possibilities of Independent Revenue for the United Nations (Washington, Brookings Institution, October 1962Google Scholar, mimeograph).

31 For example, Clark, Grenville and Sohn, Louis, World Peace Through World Law (2d edn., New York 1961), xxxvii–xxxix, 349–58.Google Scholar

32 U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the United Nations Charter, Budgetary and Financial Problems of the United Nations, Staff Study No. 6 (Washington 1954), 19.

33 Taubenfeld, 48–49.

34 Senate Subcommittee on UN Charter, Staff Study, 21.

35 Press conference, March 8, 1963.