14 countries lost their voting rights at the UN

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on January 22 informed the United Nations General Assembly about the list of 14 member countries that have not fulfilled their financial obligations to the largest multilateral international organization on the planet.

Among the countries that have yet to fulfill their annual contributions to the United Nations is Venezuela, which is currently a member of the UN Security Council and will assume the rotating presidency next month.

Panorama of a session of the United Nations General Assembly. (Source: AFP/VNA)

Defaulting on the UN debt would result in the suspension of the above countries' voting rights at the UN General Assembly and could weaken their position at the UN.

However, the General Assembly adopted a resolution allowing five of the poorest and war-torn countries to vote in the current session, which ends in September: Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia and Yemen.

The remaining nine countries whose voting rights are suspended include Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Burundi, Bahrain, Libya, Mali, the Marshall Islands and Vanuatu.

To restore voting rights, the nine countries are required to provide minimum contributions, ranging from $1,360 for Burundi and $2,155 for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, to $2.1 million for the Dominican Republic and under $3 million for Venezuela.

According to Article 19 of the United Nations Charter, any member of the organization that is in arrears in the payment of its contributions to the United Nations shall be deprived of its voting rights in the General Assembly if the amount of arrears equals or exceeds the amount of its contributions for the previous two years.

However, the General Assembly may allow those member countries to vote if it considers that the delay is due to circumstances beyond its control./.

According to Vietnam+