US largest donor to UN human rights agency

GENEVA - The US was the largest donor in 2009 to the UN’s main human rights office, a report showed Friday.

The annual report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights indicated that the US gave nearly $20 million in voluntary funds, ranking it first among the 77 donor countries.

Spain, having given nearly $14 million, was second, followed by the Netherlands and Norway. Germany donated $7.63 million and was ranked fifth.

The data showed that Western nations were the top donors and that they also supplied the overwhelming majority of voluntary funds, which totalled $118.1 million last year.

Two noted exceptions were Russia, which was in 17th place with a grant of $2 million, and Morocco with $1.5 million in donations.