Committee on Contributions

Sessions

The Committee on Contributions meets annually for 3 to 4 weeks, usually in June of each year. The report of the Committee is considered by the General Assembly through the Fifth Committee at the following main session.

Every year the Committee considers requests for exemption under Article 19 of the Charter. The Committee also reviews the status of multi-year payment plans, and elements of the methodology of the scale of assessments.

Eighty-fourth session

The Committee held its eighty-fourth session from 3-28 June 2024. The report of the Committee is contained in document A/79/11.

At its eighty-fourth session, with regard to the methodology for the scale of assessments for the period 2025–2027, the Committee on Contributions:

  1. Decided to review the scale for the period 2025–2027 pursuant to rule 160 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly and Assembly resolutions 58/1 B and 76/238;
  2. Recalled and reaffirmed its recommendation that the scale of assessments for the period 2025–2027 be based on the most current, comprehensive, reliable, verifiable and comparable data available for gross national income (GNI);
  3. Recommended that the General Assembly encourage the Member States to submit gross national disposable income (GNDI) data to the Statistics Division, which the Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Working Group on the Implementation of the Principle of Capacity to Pay agreed was theoretically the most appropriate measure of capacity to pay;
  4. Welcomed the number of Member States implementing the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA), and expressed support for the ongoing efforts by the Statistics Division to enhance coordination, advocacy and implementation of SNA and supporting statistics at the national level, with a view to enabling Member States to submit national accounts data on a timely basis with the required scope, detail and quality;
  5. Recommended that the General Assembly call upon Member States to submit the required national accounts questionnaires under the 2008 SNA on a timely basis;
  6. Recommended that conversion rates based on market exchange rates be used for the scale of assessments for the period 2025–2027, except where that would cause excessive fluctuations and distortions in the GNI of some Member States expressed in United States dollars, in which case United Nations operational rates or other appropriate conversion rates should be applied, if so determined on a case-by-case basis;
  7. Decided to use a market exchange rate and (except in the cases of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Lebanon and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, where the Committee will use the annual price adjusted rate of exchange (PARE));
  8. Agreed that, once chosen, there were advantages in using the same base period for as long as possible;
  9. Acknowledged that a low per capita income adjustment continued to be an essential element of the scale methodology, which should be based on reliable, verifiable and comparable data. It was also acknowledged that data provided by Member States, as well as other reliable, verifiable and comparable data sources, should be taken into account;
  10. Noted that an alternative approach for establishing the low per capita income threshold could be the world average per capita debt-adjusted GNI;
  11. Noted that an alternative approach for establishing the low per capita income threshold could be an inflation-adjusted threshold;
  12. Considered the application of the new data to the methodology used in preparing the current scale and included the results for information;
  13. Decided to further consider all elements of the scale methodology at its eighty-fifth session, taking into account guidance from the General Assembly.

With regard to other suggestions and other possible elements for the scale methodology, the Committee on Contributions:

  1. Agreed that any scheme of limits should not be an element of the scale methodology;
  2. Decided to study further the questions of large scale-to-scale changes in rates of assessment and annual recalculation on the basis of any guidance thereon by the General Assembly;
  3. Decided to further study the question of safeguard measures at future sessions and any related new ideas at its next session.

The Committee recalled the past successful implementation of multi-year payment plans by several Member States and reiterated its recommendation that the General Assembly encourage all Member States in arrears under Article 19 of the Charter to consult with the Secretariat to develop and submit practical multi-year payment plans.

The Committee encouraged all Member States in arrears requesting exemption under Article 19 to provide the fullest possible supporting information in support of their claim, including economic, social, political and financial indicators.

With regard to exemptions from the application of Article 19 of the Charter, the Committee recommended that the following Member States be permitted to vote in the General Assembly until the end of its seventy-ninth session: Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe and Somalia.

Under other matters, the Committee:

  1. Recommended a flat annual fee of 50 per cent to be applied to notional rates of assessment of 0.001 per cent for the Holy See and 0.011 per cent for the State of Palestine, as non-member States, for the period 2025–2027;
  2. Recommended that the General Assembly appoint Mr. Ugo Sessi as member emeritus of the Committee on Contributions;
  3. Decided to hold its eighty-fifth session from 2 to 20 June 2025.

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