Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told members of the General Assembly on Tuesday evening that eight countries, including Iran, Sudan and Venezuela, had lost their right to vote at the United Nations due to their increasing debts to the organization.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, in a letter received by Agence France-Presse, explained that “eleven member states are currently in arrears in paying their contributions under Article 19 of the Charter of the United Nations.” The article states that a country’s voting rights in the General Assembly are suspended when its arrears equal or exceed its contribution for the past two years.
If the arrears are caused by “conditions beyond the country’s control,” a country can retain voting rights, as this year for Comoros, Sao Tome-en-Principe and Somalia, according to Antonio Guterres.
The Secretary-General added that in addition to Iran, Sudan and Venezuela, five other countries lost their right to vote, most notably Antigua and Barbuda, Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. It sets the minimum amount each country must pay to regain voting rights. For example, Iran has to pay more than 18 million dollars (about 16 million euros), Sudan about 300 thousand dollars (262 thousand euros), and Venezuela about 40 million dollars (35 million euros).
Iran had already lost its right to vote last year due to outstanding contributions. Tehran then said it was unable to pay the minimum due to economic and financial sanctions imposed by Washington.
The UN’s annual operating budget is around $3 billion (€2.6 billion), and the peace operations budget is around $6.5 billion (€5.7 billion).
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