Letter to Members of Congress on UN Peacekeeping Funding
Synopsis:
Citizens for Global Solutions coordinated a letter from 43 major international NGOs to House and Senate Appropriators requesting support for peacekeeping funds in the President's FY09 Supp request.
Excerpt:
Dear Member of Congress,
We are writing to urge your support for the $886,900,000 requested for United Nations and other peacekeeping accounts included in President Obama's FY 2009 Supplemental Funding request. As you know, American support for UN peacekeeping missions plays a critical role in promoting regional and global stability, preventing outbreaks in violence, and creating conditions that promote peaceful solutions to conflict.
The United States has correctly played a leadership role in supporting UN peacekeeping activities, and it voted for the establishment of all 16 missions currently deployed in places such as Darfur, Lebanon, and Haiti. These missions directly promote America's interests by providing a proven and effective way to share the cost of promoting global peace and security. But as the U.S. has supported the continuation and expansion of these peacekeeping missions, the funding we have provided has not kept pace with our commitments, which strains our credibility in the international community. Fully funding President Obama's request will provide critical and tangible support as he reasserts U.S. global leadership and recommits to multilateral diplomacy. Specifically, it will ensure that we can address our peacekeeping obligations for 2009, pay past funding shortfalls, and prevent further destabilization in troubled nations of the world, including Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Somalia.
