UNESCO Voting Right 2013

UNESCO Voting Right 2013 Voting Rights At UNESCO U.N. Educational, Scientific And Cultural Organization

US, Israel lose UNESCO voting right

U.S. automatically lost voting rights at UNESCO, after missing a crucial deadline to repay its debt to the world’s cultural agency.

The U.S. hasn’t paid its dues to the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in protest over the decision by world governments to make Palestine a UNESCO member in 2011. Israel suspended its dues at the same time.

Under UNESCO rules, the U.S. had until Friday morning to resume funding or explain itself, or it automatically loses its vote.

A UNESCO official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue, said nothing was received from either the U.S. or Israel.

The suspension of U.S. contributions, which account for $80 million a year 22 percent of UNESCO’s overall budget brought the agency to the brink of a financial crisis and forced it to cut or scale back American-led initiatives such as Holocaust education and tsunami research over the past two years.

The UNESCO tension has prompted new criticism of U.S. laws that force an automatic funding cutoff for any U.N. agency with Palestine as a member.

The official list of countries that lose their votes was expected to be read aloud on Saturday before the entire UNESCO general conference.

UNESCO may be best known for its programmes to protect the cultures of the world via its Heritage sites, which include the Statue of Liberty and Mali’s Timbuktu.