South Sudan, 5 other countries lose UN voting rights over arrears

NEW YORK, JANUARY 20^th 2023 (SUDANS POST) – South Sudan is among at least six countries that have lost voting rights at the United Nations (UN) for failure to pay membership arrears, UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a letter circulated on Thursday.

The other five countries losing voting rights along with South Sudan are Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Venezuela, and Lebanon, Guterres added.

Gabon is serving a two-year term on the Security Council though its voting rights there are not affected.

The UN Charter states that members whose arrears equal or exceed the amount of their contributions for the preceding two full years lose their voting rights.

But it also gives the General Assembly the authority to decide “that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the member,” and in that case a country can continue to vote.

The General Assembly decided that three African countries on the list of nations in arrears – Comoros, São Tomé and Príncipe and Somalia – would be able to keep their voting rights.

It granted the three countries the same exemption last year.

According to the secretary-general’s letter, the minimum payments needed to restore voting rights are $76,244,991 for Venezuela, $1,835,303 for Lebanon, $619,103 for Equatorial Guinea, $196,130 for South Sudan, $61,686 for Gabon, and $20,580 for Dominica.