NEW YORK, 12 March 2009 (Inter Press Service): After nearly a decade of an often tense and estranged relationship with the United Nations, Washington appears to be taking a much more conciliatory and multilateral approach to the world body.
US President Barack Obama formally restored funding for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Wednesday by signing a major spending bill, prompting UN officials to again welcome the policy shift on women’s health-related rights.
In January, Obama issued an executive order lifting an eight-year ban on US funding for overseas family-planning groups and clinics that perform or promote abortion or lobby for its legalisation.
During the administration of George W. Bush, the UNFPA lost its US funding on charges that it was trying to promote abortion, an allegation that Obaid and other officials strongly denied.
Obama said the resumption of US funding would help not only to reduce poverty, but also improve the health of women and children and prevent HIV/AIDS.
UNFPA says due to the US restrictions on funding its programmes, millions of women in poor countries were unable to access health care during pregnancy and that many of them died as a result.
Earlier this week, Obama signed the legislative omnibus funding bill containing a 50-million-dollar contribution to UNFPA. The funding had been in limbo since 2002 when Bush began to implement his ideologically-driven policies towards women’s rights.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who had a day-long meeting with Obama and other key political figures in Washington Wednesday, appeared equally pleased with the political leadership in Washington.
– The new president is enormously engaged and a visionary leader. I am confident that he will bring to the international arena the same ambition and appetite for bold measures that he is bringing to US affairs, Ban said after the talks.
– With US leadership in partnership with the UN, we can and will reach a climate change deal that all nations can embrace,” he added.
Among the world’s industrialised nations, the US is the only country that has yet to sign the Kyoto treaty on climate change, which was rejected by Washington under the Bush administration.
Though supportive of global initiatives, Obama has yet to declare when the US, which accounts for more than a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions, would embrace an international treaty on climate change.
However, Ban said he and Obama agreed that 2009 “must be the year of climate change. That means reaching a comprehensive agreement in Copenhagen by year’s end.”
Ban reiterated his gratification at US pledges of support for the UN, but, at the same time, criticised the world’s largest economic and military power for failing to keep its word.
Ban noted:
– Of course the United States is the largest financial contributor. But with such a large sum of amount in arrears, it is very difficult for the United Nations to conduct smoothly all these peacekeeping operations and other activities.
The US owes no less than 1,6 billion dollar in arrears. Long-time observers of UN-US relations say this sum has accumulated over the years as a form of leverage for Washington to impose its will on the world body.
Kilder: IPS og The Push Journal
