Hyde UN reform bill would allow dissatisfied US to cut dues by 50% News
Hyde UN reform bill would allow dissatisfied US to cut dues by 50%

[JURIST] Republican Congressman Henry Hyde [official website], chair of the House International Relations Committee, introduced legislation in the US House of Representatives Tuesday calling for broad reforms to the UN. The UN Reform Act of 2005 [PDF text] alleges that the organization is rife with fraud and waste, citing the recent Oil-for-Food scandal [BBC timeline; JURIST news archive] as one example, and would permit the US to withold 50 percent of its UN dues based on what it perceives as poor performance in specific areas. Hyde denounced the current UN for its ""gratuitous anti-Americanism" and castigated the UN Commission on Human Rights [official website] for allowing Cuba and the Sudan to "act as arbiters of human rights" despite their own troubling records. The UN budget in 2005 was $1.828 billion, with the US contributing $438 million. Read the press release on the introduction of the bill. AFP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.