New Delhi (ABC Live): The 18 extremely poor Member States of United Nations from Africa have lost their rights to vote in general assembly due to nonpayment of their contribution to UN.
At present, 18 Member States are in arrears under the terms of Article 19 of the Charter of the United Nations, which states: “A Member of the United Nations which is in arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the Organization shall have no vote in the General Assembly if the amount of its arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the preceding two full years.”
The General Assembly may, nevertheless, permit such a Member to vote if it is satisfied that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the Member.
The minimum payments necessary to reduce the amounts owed by those Member States on their contributions so that they remain below the gross amount assessed for the preceding two full years (2012 and 2013) are as follows:
- Central African Repub18 Member States lica: $205 523.00
- Comorosa: $852 910.00
- Dominica: $19 734.00
- Grenada: $45 197.00
- Guinea-$Bissaua: 543 582.00
- Kyrgyzstan: $38 467.00
- Marshall Islands: $43 112.00
- Mauritania: $24 964.00
- Papua New Guinea: $31 733.00
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines :$10 596.00
- Sao Tome and Principea: $827 596.00
- Somaliaa: $1 255 926.00
- Sudan: $111 300.00
- Timor-Leste: $1 307.00
- Tonga: $ 16 210.00
- Vanuatu: $ 35 481.00
- Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of): $10 020 789.00
- Yemen: $34 525.00
In its resolution 68/5 of 9 October 2013, the General Assembly decided that the Central African Republic, the Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe and Somalia shall be permitted to vote in the Assembly until the end of its sixty-eighth session.
