Just weeks before heads of UN Member States gather in New York to discuss how to revitalize and modernize the United Nations, the U.S. delegation, led by John Bolton, has launched a last-minute effort to change a near finalized document for UN reform. Ambassador Bolton has recommended scrapping more than 400 passages from the 38-page draft prepared for the September summit, a copy of the document obtained by The Huffington Post shows.
The United States is strongly opposing already agreed upon provisions in the document to address global poverty, climate change and provisions that would urge nuclear powers to reduce their current weapons cache.
The current document was the product of nearly a year of intensive negotiations. Its formulation is now in danger of being derailed at a serious cost to the United States and its longstanding support for the United Nations.
Read a pdf of the document, including Ambassador Bolton's edits, here.
Some highlights:
p.1: CUT: "respect for nature"
p. 2: CHANGE: "We understand the important role played by major United Nations conferences and summits..."
p. 3: CUT: "corporate responsibility and accountability"
p. 3: CUT: "and urge all states that have not done so to sign, ratify and implement the United Nations Convention Against Corruption"
p. 8: CUT: “Undertake concerted global action to address climate change through meeting all commitments and obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, the UNFCCC and other relevant international agreements, increase energy efficiency, technological innovations, and to initiate negotiations to develop a more inclusive international framework for climate change beyond 2012, with broader participation by both developing and developed countries, taking into account the principle of common but differentiated responsibility."
p.11: CHANGE: "promoting equal opportunity for men and women to participate in government decision making bodies…"
p.23: CUT: "We emphasize the responsibilities of all states, in conformity with the charter to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinctions as to race, sex, language, or religion, "
p. 28: CUT: "We support reform of the Security Council to make it more efficient, and effective."