当地时间10月12日,美国国务院发声明退出联合国教科文组织(UNESCO),退出决定将于2018年12月31日生效。随后以色列也跟着宣布退出。有媒体表示,美国拖欠了该组织会费5亿美元。
先看一眼美国国务院网站发布的信息:
声明表示此次退出组织并不是草率决定的,而是考虑到会费日益攀升、组织亟待进行改革、以及该组织长期对于以色列的偏见。
但是声明还表示,美国希望继续以“观察员身份”在组织内就一些重要问题发表意见。
其实这已经不是美国第一次退出联合国教科文组织了。早在1984年的时候,冷战背景下,里根政府就退出过一次:
▲《华盛顿邮报》1984年12月20日的报道
后来2002年9月,时任美国总统小布什在第57届联大宣布重新加入该组织。最终2003年,美国又重回组织怀抱,当时《纽约时报》New York Times的标题是这样的:
其实,特朗普上台以来就是一路退退退。这次退群,媒体当然也不能闲着啊。
先看看几个美国主流媒体报道:
《纽约时报》
《纽约时报》援引了美国国务院发言人Heather Nauert在发布会上的发言:
“We were in arrears to the tune of$550 million or so, and so the question is, do we want to pay that money?” Heather Nauert, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said Thursday at a news briefing. She added, “With this anti-Israel bias that’s long documented on the part of Unesco, that needs to come to an end.”
Heather Nauert说,我们拖欠的会费达5.5亿美元之多,但问题是:我们到底想付这笔钱吗? 鉴于该组织一直以来对于以色列怀有偏见,是时候结束了。
贫穷限制了主页君的想象力,5.5亿美元,那得是多少钱啊!
而且欠钱欠得这么理直气壮也是少有了。
In 2011, the United States stopped funding Unesco because of what was then a forgotten, 15-year-old amendment mandating a complete cutoff of American financing to any United Nations agency that accepts Palestine as a full member. Various efforts by President Barack Obama to overturn the legal restriction narrowly failed in Congress, and the United States lost its vote at the organization after two years of nonpayment, in 2013. Unesco was dependent on the United States for 22 percent of its budget, then about $70 million a year.
报道还提到,其实从2011年开始,美国就停止缴费了,原因是美国国内某个修正案禁止美国向任何接受巴勒斯坦为正式成员的联合国组织缴费。上任总统奥巴马还尝试过在国会推翻这个规定。拖了两年没缴费,美国就在2013年失去了组织内投票权。报道还说美国每年会费大约7000万美元,占科文组织预算的22%。
这么大的比例,美国不缴费的话,的确会为该组织带来一些影响。
CNN
特朗普一直看不上的CNN这次援引了美国驻联合国大使Nikki Haley对于联合国教科文组织的评论:
"The purpose of UNESCO is a good one," US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in a statement. "Unfortunately, its extreme politicization has become a chronic embarrassment."
她认为联合国教科文组织的极度政治化已经是一个长期尴尬的问题。
Haley called the decision to classify the Tomb of the Patriarchs as a UNESCO World Heritage Site "just the latest in a long line of foolish actions, which includes keeping Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad on a UNESCO human rights committee even after his murderous crackdown on peaceful protestors."
她还认为联合国教科文组织将“列祖之墓”列为世界遗产的决定是一系列“愚蠢行为”之一。
以色列和巴勒斯坦的冲突延续了很多年。根据CNN的描述,位于巴勒斯坦管辖区 “列祖之墓”同时被犹太人、基督教和穆斯林视为神圣之地。以色列因此认为联合国教科文组织这次的决定是一个政治性的行为,是对于该遗迹的犹太特征以及圣地一些其他重要遗迹的否认。
联合国教科文组织总干事Irina Bokova对于美国退出这一推动教育、文化发展的组织表示很遗憾。CNN的报道也援引她通过官方帐号发出的声明:
In a statement released via her official Twitter handle, Bokova called the withdrawal "a loss to UNESCO. This is a loss to the United Nations family. This is a loss for multilateralism."
她认为美国退出联合国教科文组织对于该组织、联合国大家庭以及多边主义来说都是一种损失。
《时代》杂志网站
CNN和《纽约时报》这两篇报道并没有对美国的退群决定作出深入的讨论。而美国《时代》杂志网上的一篇报道分析说,美国退群的原因一方面是由于该组织对待以色列的偏见态度:
The biggest strain is the body's approach to Israel. This year, UNESCO declared Hebron in the West Bank as a Palestinian world heritage site — a move Israel says negates Judaism's links to the town.
Israel had earlier recalled itsambassador to UNESCO in 2016, in response to the agency accepting resolutions that condemned Israel's policies in religious sites in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and cited the Temple Mount as only a "Muslim holy site ofworship," Reuters reports.
另一方面,援引了国际关系刊物《外交关系》的分析,美国此举可能是因为要节省预算,并且强调特朗普一直批评美国在联合国这类国际组织内的贡献不成比例:
Trump's administration has been preparing to leave the body for months, Foreign Policy reports, and it might have been motivated by budget cuts. The President has repeatedly criticized what he considers to be the disproportionate contributions to international bodies like the U.N.
《华盛顿邮报》
《华盛顿邮报》标题一语道破特朗普外交政策主题:抛弃协定已经是特朗普的主要外交政策了
还援引了美国外交关系协会会长Richard N. Haass的评论:特朗普的外交政策主题就是“退出主义” TPP、《巴黎协定》、联合国教科文组织等都在其列,原文在此:
Trump foreign policy has found its theme:The Withdrawal Doctrine. US has left/threatening to leave TPP, Paris accord,Unesco, NAFTA, JCPOA
— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) October 12, 2017。
接下来看看英国的媒体:
《卫报》
英国的《卫报》除了提到了美国退群的政治影响,还报道了其他国家对于美国此举的表态:
France’s ambassador to the UN, Francois Delattre, said Unesco’s ideals are “part of America’s DNA” and that “we need an America that stays committed to world affairs.”
法国驻联合国大使认为联合国教科文组织的理念是美国DNA的一部分,而且表示“我们需要一个能够致力于解决世界事务的美国”。
Tatiana Dovgalenko, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the agency, told The Associated Press that the departure of “one of the countries that founded the UN system” is “a shock and a pity.”
俄罗斯代表也发声了,表示震惊和遗憾。
对于原因分析,除了以色列问题,该报道也同样援引了《外交政策》的分析:
According to a report in Foreign Policy, the US decision was also driven by a desire to make budget cuts.
当然了,反对党的讽刺必不可少:
《独立报》
英国《独立报》官网的报道贴出了美国民主党的评论:
Several Democratic politicians were quick to criticise the announcement. Ben Rhodes, former foreign policy adviser to President Barack Obama, pointed to Mr Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and criticism of the Iran nuclear deal.
“Why would any country trust US to keep agreements?” he tweeted.
前总统奥巴马的顾问Ben Rhodes发推:其他国家为什么会相信我们会信守承诺啊?
“Trump pulled US out of UNESCO,” tweeted Representative Pramila Jayapal. “Making it clear that culture, history, world heritage isn’t important to him, even if it is to Americans & world.”
议员Pramila Jayapal说:特朗普把美国拽出来很明确地表明文化、历史和世界遗产对于他、美国人和世界来说都不重要。
联合国教科文组织的宗旨在于促进教科文方面的国际合作,特朗普带着美国退群,无论是出于什么样的原因,势必对于文化、教育领域的多方合作带来一些影响。
但是,美国作为一个发达国家,虽然在国际上的影响力不容小觑,一个没有美国的联合国教科文组织也许会迎来不同以往的变化。
另外,主页君很好奇的是,美国退会之前,要不要把拖欠的会费结一下啊先?