A number of sources advised Fox Information Digital that the U.N.’s Division of World Communications could also be a goal for reform and even funding cuts, since it’s typically at odds with the U.S. and Israel.
The requires reform come a month after President Donald Trump signed an government order calling for a evaluation of funding to the U.N. On the time, Trump mentioned that the world physique “has super potential,” however is “not being nicely run.”
Final week, United Nations Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres warned about cuts to U.S. spending on the U.N., stating that “going by way of with latest funding cuts will make the world much less wholesome, much less protected, and fewer affluent.”
To this point, Trump has halted new funding to the United Nations Reduction and Works Administration for Palestinian Refugees within the Close to East (UNRWA) and withdrew the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council. On Feb. 27, the U.S. additionally terminated $377 million in grants with the United Nations Inhabitants Fund, which provides sexual and reproductive well being providers in 150 nations.
TRUMP CUTS US OFF FROM UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, BANS UNRWA FUNDING
File: U.S. President Donald Trump addressing the United Nations Common Meeting throughout his first time period on September 24, 2019 in New York Metropolis. (Drew Angerer/Getty Photos)
The U.N. media department’s practically 700 staff are tasked to “leverage the facility of communications to inform the United Nations story to international audiences in a number of languages and platforms with a purpose to mobilize motion in assist of the United Nations agenda.”
Anne Bayefsky, Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and President of Human Rights Voices, advised Fox Information Digital that, by way of the Division, “the U.S. taxpayer pays the U.N. to rent media specialists and do P.R. for the aim of blasting anti-American and antisemitic trash across the globe.”
Requested whether or not funding the Division of World Communications serves U.S. pursuits, a U.N. spokesperson advised Fox Information Digital that the Division performs media outreach, operates as a newswire, and hosts the Dag Hammarskjöld Library.
Most of the Division of World Communications’ personnel, the spokesperson defined, are “primarily based at 59 U.N. Info Facilities internationally, which talk concerning the U.N. and the collective will of its Member States in native languages, nearer to the people who the U.N. serves.”
United Nations Secretary Common Antonio Guterres speaks throughout a Safety Council assembly on the United Nations headquarters, April 18, 2024. (AP Photograph/Yuki Iwamura, File)
Former member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Hugh Dugan advised Fox Information Digital that the necessity to use data facilities “to foyer its personal members on their dime of their nations speaks to the deep state to me.” With U.S. public assist for the U.N. declining, Dugan mentioned the Division of World Communications “is greater than failing in its personal yard in essentially the most consequential nation for its future.”
A Pew Research Center discovered that 52% of Individuals had a positive perspective of the U.N. as of April 2024, down from 57% in 2023.
Fox Information Digital requested Below Secretary-Common for World Communications Melissa Fleming whether or not the Division of World Communications is concerned in oversight of communications for extra U.N. entities.
Fleming mentioned that her division “doesn’t have oversight, however convenes common coordination conferences with communication colleagues from throughout the U.N. system to debate disaster conditions and content material plans.” Fleming additionally confirmed that the Division of World Communications has cost of the principle United Nations’ social media account.
Flags of the UN and USA fly outdoors the United Nations headquarters forward of the 78th session of the United Nations Common Meeting in New York Metropolis on September 15, 2023. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP through Getty Photos)
Hillel Neuer, Government Director of U.N. Watch, advised Fox Information Digital that “by way of its common communications, whether or not it is the Secretary Common, or whether or not it is numerous U.N. social media accounts, are routinely engaged in anti-American and anti-Israel, and you could possibly say, to the extent that it is demonizing the Jewish folks, antisemitic messaging.”
U.S. Ambassador-designate to the U.N. Elise Stefanik just lately tweeted that “the times of propping up organizations on the United Nations that run counter to our pursuits are lengthy gone. We are going to not fund terrorism, antisemitism, and anti-Israel hate.” Stefanik was talking on the ADL’s ‘NEVER IS NOW’ summit.
AMERICAN CENSORED BY UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, ACCUSED OF USING ‘DISRESPECTFUL LANGUAGE’
UN automobile enters the UNRWA workplaces in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Apr 2, 2024. Photograph by Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS (Photograph by Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS)
Fox Information Digital discovered a number of Tweets from the U.N. Twitter account that promote a one-sided narrative of the Israel-Gaza battle. These included a Jan. 29 Tweet in assist of the UN Reduction and Works Administration for Palestine Refugees within the Close to East, which states that “Israeli laws imposes huge restraints on UNRWA’s operations,” however fails to notice why Israel has banned UNRWA’s operations and a rising variety of countries have pulled funding from the terror-tied group.
A Dec. 27 World Well being Group Tweet retweeted by the United Nations mentioned {that a} raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital was a part of a “systematic dismantling of the well being system in Gaza,” however didn’t point out that the Israel Protection Forces entered the power to apprehend a number of members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, together with the director, who saved weaponry contained in the hospital, as terror teams have achieved repeatedly in the course of the struggle.
Spokespersons from the U.S. State Division, U.S. Mission to the U.N., and the United Nations have been unable to offer Fox Information Digital with figures about what share of the Division of World Communications’ greater than $117.9 million funds is roofed by the U.S.
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In 2022, the U.S.’s $18.1 billion contribution to the U.N. coated 30% of the group’s whole funds. By 2024, U.S. contributions to the U.N. have been at 22% for the general funds and 27% for the peacekeeping funds. The U.N. experiences that greater than 40% of humanitarian support it donated in 2024 was supplied by the U.S.
A State Division spokesperson didn’t reply direct questions on whether or not funding the Division of World Communications serves U.S. pursuits, however defined {that a} 90-day evaluation interval instated by a Jan. 20 government order “is a measure put in place for us to align our ongoing work with the America First agenda. The outcomes of the in-depth evaluation will likely be communicated transparently.” The spokesperson mentioned that the State “Division and USAID take their function as stewards of taxpayer {dollars} very critically.
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