wfn.org | Mother's Day card urge support for U.N. programs

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

May 6, 1999	News media contact: Joretta Purdue*(202)546-8722*Washington
10-21-71B{255}

By Shanta M. Bryant*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - U.S. women's leaders, including a United Methodist
agency executive, have sent a special Mother's Day card to congressional
leaders to celebrate the work of the United Nations in helping women and
their children.

Jane Hull Harvey, a staff member of the denomination's Board of Church and
Society, joined with women lawmakers and advocates May 5 to send a strong
and urgent message to the U.S. Congress. The cards stressed the value of
U.N. programs for women and families worldwide and urged immediate U.N. debt
repayment.

 The women asked the U.S. government to pay its $1 billion debt to the
United Nations to continue essential U.N. programs that improve women's
lives especially in developing countries. The card states, "All around the
world, mothers share the same hopes for their children.  And the United
Nations helps make them real."
  
In a statement, Harvey said, "As we celebrate and remember our mothers this
weekend, let's not turn back the clock on the U.N.'s extraordinary work in
promoting justice for women.". 

Harvey issued the statement at a press conference, calling on the United
States to meet its financial obligations in "full and on time."

"[W]e must not let the United States' failure to pay its billion dollar debt
halt the U.N.'s tremendous progress in improving the quality of life for the
world's women and children," she said.

Harvey said failure to resolve the U.S.-U.N. funding issue exacerbates the
U.N.'s financial crisis, undermines the organization's valuable programs,
damages relations with other nations and reduces respect for the rule of law
in international affairs. 

"We want to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all mothers," said U.S. Rep.
Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). "But we also want to tell them that we are fighting
to uphold the viability and the value of the UN programs that mean the most
in their daily lives."

The United Nations touts an increase in the literacy rate for women in
developing countries from 36 percent in 1970 to 60 percent in 1995.  U.N.
programs have also helped women and children by increasing immunizations,
improving education, and
ensuring healthy pregnancies, the advocates said.

The United States also risks losing a U.N. General Assembly vote.  Under
Article 19 of the U.N. Charter, nations that fall more than two years behind
in paying their dues to the United Nations lose their vote in the General
Assembly.  As a result, the United States, one of the U.N.'s founding
members, could lose its vote at the end of this year. Only Afghanistan,
Iraq, Rwanda and Yugoslavia have lost theirs during the organization's
50-year existence.

U.S. Rep. Connie Morella (R-MD) said, "Members of Congress must come
together and take action in order to maintain our voice in the important
issues that are being decided at the United Nations. Our unpaid bills will
undermine U.S. leadership throughout the international community and cripple
our influence over key U.N. programs, to the detriment of women and children
in developing countries."

Harvey pointed out that the United Methodist Church is committed to a
"strong and viable" United Nations and has worked to promote its ideals and
programs, especially for women and children.  

The denomination has also led efforts to hold infant formula companies
accountable for
their marketing practices in developing countries, when the companies
"hooked nursing mothers on expensive infant formula, leaving children
without their mother's milk and leaving mothers unable to pay for the
continued use of infant formula."
  
###

* Bryant is associate editor of Christian Social Action and assistant
director of communications for the United Methodist Board of Church and
Society.

Note to editors: The complete text of Jane Hull Harvey's statement  follows:

Celebrate U.N. Efforts to Improve World's Mothers on Mother's Day

"Today, we are here to celebrate Mother's Day and the essential work of the
United Nations in uplifting the plight of mothers and their children around
the globe. The General Board of Church and Society, the United Methodist
Church's public policy agency, applauds U.N. efforts to relieve the
suffering of millions through better health care, protecting God's creation
through its global environmental initiatives, promoting human rights and
bringing genuine and lasting peace in the world. 

Since its founding in 1945, the United Nations has done so much to help
mothers and children around the world, such as providing much-needed
assistance through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), to
battling against smallpox, polio, childhood mortality, inadequate nutrition
and HIV/AIDS.  

Yet we must not let the United States' failure to pay its billion-dollar
debt halt the UN's tremendous progress in improving the quality of life for
the world's women and children. Therefore, we strongly urge the U.S.
Congress to pay the United Nations the more than $1 billion debt owed by the
United States.  The failure to resolve the U.S.-U.N. funding issue
exacerbates the UN's financial crisis, undermines the organization's
valuable programs and actions, sours relations with other nations and
reduces respect for the rule
of law in international affairs.

The United Methodist Church is committed to a strong and viable United
Nations and has worked diligently to promote its ideals and programs,
especially for women and children.  We've participated in international
conferences and summits relating to women and children. The church led the
interreligious community's effort to hold infant formula companies
accountable for their marketing practices in developing countries that
hooked nursing mothers on expensive infant formula, leaving children without
their mother's milk and leaving mothers unable to pay for the continued use
of infant formula.  

As we celebrate and remember our mothers this weekend, let's not turn back
the clock on the U.N.'s extraordinary work in promoting justice for women.
We call on the United States to meet its financial obligations in full and
on time and to work with other member states to provide the world body with
the mandate and resources to carry out its vital mission in the 21st
century.

###

Only General Conference speaks for the entire denomination.  The General
Board of Church and Society is the international public policy and social
action agency of the United Methodist Church.

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