Sec. 101. Findings
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Congress finds the following: Article 100 of the United Nations Charter provides that United Nations Secretariat staff shall not seek or receive instructions from any government or from any authority external to the Organization . Furthermore, it requires Member States to respect the exclusively international character of the responsibilities of the Secretary-General and the staff and not to seek to influence them in the discharge of their responsibilities . For decades, Russia has manipulated the United Nations procurement process to its own benefit, especially in air assets.
Russian nationals in key procurement and personnel positions inside the United Nations have repeatedly drafted procurement contracts designed to ensure that Russian airframes and pilots have an unfair advantage when bidding for these contracts. According to Human Rights Watch, the People’s Republic of China
(PRC)has used its leadership roles within the United Nations to block nongovernmental organizations critical of the PRC from being accredited to the UN. PRC diplomats have violated UN rules by harassing activists by photographing and filming them on UN property, as well as contacting UN employees in efforts to intimidate and harass them. In 2013, PRC authorities detained Cao Shunli after she tried to attend trainings in Geneva on the Human Rights Council. She was arrested at Beijing Airport and disappeared for several weeks. She had previously called on the Chinese Communist Party to work with civil society during the drafting of the PRC’s second Universal Periodic Review, a mechanism by which the UN Human Rights Council reviews the human rights record of Member States. After five and a half months in detention, she died in a military hospital in Beijing. When NGOs at the Human Rights Council called for a moment of silence in memory of Cao, the PRC delegation blocked the request. In a 2019 interview with China Central Television, Wu Hongbo, the former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), stated publicly that as a United Nations Employee, he prioritized the PRC’s interests above the impartiality of the United Nations System. When discussing how he demanded the United Nations police expel Dolkun Isa, an accredited nongovernmental organization
(NGO)participant, from the United Nations headquarters, Wu Hongbo described him as a Xinjiang separatist and bragged about intimidating an Assistant Secretary-General who complained. He went on to say I think being a Chinese diplomat means one can’t be careless, when it is about protecting China’s national interest and safety. We have to strongly defend the motherland’s interests. . Despite this action, Wu Hongbo was succeeded as Under-Secretary-General and head of UNDESA by Liu Zhenmin, another PRC national. Under-Secretary-General Liu continues to prioritize PRC national interests above the impartiality required in his role. On September 19, 2019, the United States Department of State expelled two members of the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations for attempts to conduct influence operations against the United States .