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The United Nations - UNGA: Main Committees

4 important questions on The United Nations - UNGA: Main Committees

What are the six committees of the UN?

Disarmament and International Security Committee
Economic and Financial Committee
Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee
Special Political and Decolonization Committee
Administrative and Budgetary Committee (5th)
Legal Committee

What does the Administrative and Budgetary Committee do?

➔ Plays an important role in the organisation of the UNGA budget.
➔ The budget must finance the UN’s core activities: six main organs, eight headquarters, international conferences and political missions.

How many do member states need to pay to the committee?

➔ Member state contributions make up the budget, with a MAX of 22% (the US) and a MINIMUM of 0.001% of total expenditures.
➔ The least paying 128 countries contribute to only 1.3% of the budget, which highlights the importance of agreement on decision-making by consensus (i.e. otherwise these smaller, least-paying countries could greatly adapt the budget despite their small contributions).

Do states always pay on time?

Paying this budget is often late. In 2021, only 41 members paid on time. Countries might not pay for economic reasons and domestic problems, HOWEVER, they may also withhold payments as a political instrument (e.g. the US Congress withholding their payments to have some resolutions shift their way). Nevertheless, a sanctioning mechanism exists, where if a country has not paid within two years, they lose their voting rights (e.g. as happened to Libya in 2018).

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

The United Nations, Part 1

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