Iran, Sudan & others lose right to vote at UN Assembly due to 'non-payment' of dues

United Nations on Wednesday revoked right to vote of at least eight countries, including Iran, Venezuela, and Sudan due to the unpaid dues. In a letter dispatched by the United Nations [UN] Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the General Assembly, the UN announced that the voting rights of a total of 11 countries that are behind their payment have been suspended with immediate effect. The other nations include Antigua and Barbuda, the Republic of Congo, Guinea, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu.

“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 letter by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres read. 

Voting rights scrapped in compliance with Article 19: UN 

[Credit: UN]

In a press update on Jan. 12, the UN General Assembly of the United Nations said that the defaulting nations’ voting rights have been scrapped in compliance with Article 19 of the Charter of the United Nations, which clearly states that “member states in arrears in the payment of its dues in an amount that equals or exceeds the contributions due for two preceding years can lose its vote in the General Assembly.” These countries will no longer have a say in crucial matters in the 193-member General Assembly. The minimum payments that these nations need to pay to the UN to restore voting rights are $18,412,438 for Iran, $39,850,761 for Venezuela, and $299,044 for Sudan. And the other five other countries can pay less than $75,000 to restore their voting rights.

In some cases, as the UN outlined, the member states are given exemptions if they prove or show that the conditions in their respective countries are beyond control which may have, in turn, contributed to this inability to pay. These exemptions, though, did not apply to these nations mentioned on the UN’s list as of Jan. 12 according to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ letter. The UN also generated the list of readjusted, 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—2020 and 2021.” 

The UN General Assembly exercises the authority to decide "that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the member," and in which case, they can still continue to vote. At least three African countries on the list of nations in arrears namely Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, and Somalia will still be able to keep voting rights. Iran has lost its UN voting right for the second time, the first time being in January 2021 when it defaulted on the payment. 

Iran a two-time defaulter

The Islamic Republic, however, was able to get its right back in June 2021 after paying minimum dues as it lambasted the United States’ former President Trump for slapping sanctions linked to the unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran accused the US of its financial woes and blamed Washington’s imposing crippling sanctions that battered its economy during the global coronavirus pandemic. At the time, the Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani told the UN that US sanctions have prevented the country from accessing billions of dollars in foreign banks as its assets were frozen. The payment was made with the assistance of the other countries’ banking systems and government officials including South Korea, whom the UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq thanked exceedingly.