The United States and the United Nations

President Bush, right, shakes hands with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

U.S. Participation in the United Nations: Our Vision and Priorities

(Fact Sheet released by the State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs, September 9, 2004)

The U.S. Vision for the UN The United Nations should be a forum where diverse countries and cultures of the world work together for freedom, democracy, peace, human rights, and prosperity for all people.

The United States adheres to three guiding principles for engagement with the United Nations:

• The UN should live up to the vision of its founders to make the world more secure, democratic, and prosperous.

• Effective multilateralism is guided by principled and consistent leadership with the engagement of all UN partners.

• The UN’s vast resources must be managed carefully and effectively.

U.S. Priorities

• Preserve peace and strengthen security, through peacekeeping, counterterrorism, and counter-proliferation efforts.

• Help those in need, by rallying the world to increased action on famine, refugee relief, and pressing health issues.

• Promote human rights and fundamental freedoms.

• Foster democratic governance and economic opportunity.

• Advance good stewardship of the UN’s resources through better management and budget discipline.

U.S. Initiatives for the 2004 UN General Assembly

• Advancing Economic Freedom: The U.S. will promote open markets and democratic governance in developing countries as a route to freedom and prosperity. The UN and its members should promote an environment of good governance and economic freedom, including policies that support private entrepreneurship.

• Ending Child Sex Tourism: The U.S. seeks to strengthen collaboration to combat trafficking in persons, particularly to end child sex tourism. This modern-day slave trade must be stopped.

• Promoting Democracy: The U.S. remains committed to increasing cooperation among democratic countries in the UN, and supports the efforts of a Democracy Caucus to advance such cooperation on resolutions that advance international human rights standards and democratic principles.

• Banning Human Cloning: The U.S. will co-sponsor a resolution calling for an international convention against human cloning. Human cloning, for any purpose, is unethical, morally reproachable, and an affront to human dignity.

• Furthering the Roadmap to Middle East Peace: The U.S. continues to encourage Israel and the Palestinian Authority to take concrete steps toward the implementation of the Roadmap to Peace. The U.S. seeks to bring balance to Middle East resolutions to better support the peace process and implementation of the Roadmap.

U.S. Participation in the UN - Financial Contributions

U.S. Engagement in the United Nations The United Nations provides the United States with an international forum where we can enhance national security, advance foreign policy objectives, and promote American values. The United States seeks to uphold the UN’s founding principles. We share a commitment to foster international peace and security; to fight poverty through development; to eradicate pandemic diseases; and to advance freedom, human rights, and democracy.

U.S. leadership in the UN is critical to making the world more secure, more democratic, and more prosperous. At the same time, the United States is committed to ensuring good stewardship of UN resources so these universal goals are met effectively and efficiently.

U.S. Financial Contributions to the United Nations The United States is the largest financial contributor to the UN, and has been every year since its creation in 1945. U.S. contributions to the UN system in 2003 were well over $3 billion. In-kind contributions include items such as food donations for the World Food Program. The U.S.-assessed contribution to the UN regular budget in 2003 was $341 million, and to UN specialized agencies was over $400 million. The United States also contributed $686 million in assessments to the peacekeeping budget; $57 million for the support of the international war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia; and $6 million for preparatory work relating to the Capital Master Plan to renovate the UN Headquarters in New York. Moreover, each year the United States provides a significant amount in voluntary contributions to the UN and its affiliated agencies and activities, largely for humanitarian and development programs.

Benefits to Americans The United States benefits from membership in the UN and other international organizations by being part of a multilateral approach to address a wide range of serious global issues. Through the UN, the United States can build coalitions and pursue multilateral programs that advance U.S. and international interests. U.S. priorities include: countering global terrorism; preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; encouraging nuclear safeguards, arms control, and disarmament; promoting peace in the Middle East and an end to anguish in other regions such as Africa; promoting economic growth; treating those with HIV/AIDS and preventing new HIV infections; and bringing an end to trafficking in persons. The United Nations provides the forum for the U.S. to address these and other key objectives.

The United States is a generous supporter -- in many cases the largest supporter -- of key UN programs. In 2003, the U.S. contributed:

• 57% to the budget of the World Food Program to help feed 104 million people in 81 countries;

• 17% to the budget of the United Nations Children's Fund to feed, vaccinate, educate, and protect children in 158 countries;

• 14% to the core budget of the United Nations Development Program to eradicate poverty and encourage democratic governance;

• 33% to the budget of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.