Only 22 countries are paid-in-full members of U.N.

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 10/21/09 | Michelle Nichols

[NormsRevenge]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Just 22 countries out of 192 -- 11.4 percent -- are paid-in-full members of the United Nations, a U.N. official said on Wednesday.

Those nations have paid all of what they owed for the world body's 2008/09 core budget, peacekeeping, international tribunals and renovations to U.N. headquarters in New York, said Angela Kane, U.N. under secretary-general for management.

They are Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Congo, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Niger, the Philippines, Singapore, Italy, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and Tajikistan.

The rest including the United States -- the top contributor to the United Nations -- have yet to pay all their dues, Kane said.

"The financial health of the organization depends on member states including the major contributors meeting their financial obligations in full and on time," she said.

She said U.N. members still owed a total of $3.1 billion for 2008/09 -- $2.1 billion for peacekeeping, $828 million for the core budget, $63 million for the international tribunals and $86 million for renovations to U.N. headquarters.

There are 123 countries that have cleared their bills for the U.N. core budget and 119 that have paid for the U.N. renovations. Only 84 have paid for U.N. international tribunals.

[GeronL]

WHAT utter garbage. We shouldn’t be paying any more than anyone else. Plus we pay a goodly portion of their operations budgets that is not included in dues, much of that is automatic.

[WOBBLY BOB]

SHOCKED I TELL YA!!!

How good is the United Nations at reforming itself?

Not good at all, according to a lengthy study this year by U.N. investigators of a grandiose, five-year effort to streamline and coordinate the performance of a $778 million U.N. bureaucracy that is supposed to do what diplomats like to do best: hold meetings.

According to the report, the bureaucracy’s reform effort so far has been a near-total failure.

Distributed to U.N. members in advance of the September opening of the General Assembly, the 24-page evaluation report was prepared by members of the U.N.’s watchdog Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).

After four months spent studying a much-touted “Integrated Global Management Initiative,” intended to improve the performance of the sprawling U.N. conference bureaucracy, the OIOS inspectors declared that they had discovered “no progress or change” in how the organization was able to allocate money and staff around the world.

Nor could the investigators discover any cost savings as a result of the global reform effort. In fact, the report says, “no attempt has been made to track any savings or efficiency gains.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,562382,00.html

[elkfersupper]

The U.N. needs to relocate to China, Iran, North Korea or Zimbabwe - where it obviously belongs.

[WOBBLY BOB]

[Parley Baer]

They are fools. I have no use for the UN.

[allmost]

The supposed ‘united nations’ wants Japan and the US to pay for nearly half it's expenses. It aint right. Giving lowlife thug dictators a free ride and get ‘international’ recognition. We pay them to bitch and complain about us.

[randomhero97]

lol

[Reagan Man]

Get the UN out of the US and the US out of the UN.

I nominate France, or Great Britain, or Germany, or ......

[guitarplayer1953]

deduct the operating cost from the UN building from our dues and then it might be a little more even. Or better yet lets charge them all rent on the building space.

[bannie]

Not to worry.

I’m sure that WE will foot the bills.

>:-(

[oldteen]

...Get the UN out of the US and the US out of the UN...

I agree...don’t pay them but DO give them an eviction notice.

[OA5599]

These are the top 5 and percentage of UN’s donations:

United States (22%)
Japan (16.6%)
Germany (8.6%)
UK (6.6%)
France (6.3%)

The US alone donates more to the UN budget than the 22 countries that are supposedly paid in full combined (22% vs 21%):

Australia (1.79%)
Austria (0.89%)
Azerbaijan (0.005%)
Canada (2.98%)
Congo (0.001%)
Croatia (0.05%)
Finland (0.56%)
Germany (8.58%)
Iceland (0.037%)
Ireland (0.45%)
Italy (5.08%)
Liechtenstein (0.01%)
Monaco (0.003%)
New Zealand (0.26%)
Niger (0.001%)
Philippines (0.08%)
Singapore (0.35%)
Slovakia (0.06%)
South Africa (0.29%)
Sweden (1.07%)
Switzerland (1.22%)
Tajikistan (0.001%)

That is according to the UN itself:
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=ST/ADM/SER.B/755

[aShepard]

Let the East River Turtle Bay Debating Society (UN)
sink in to the oblivion that it deserves.

[allmost]

Those numbers don't include aid given by the UN. Aid includes operational costs. The US and Japan are by far the largest philanthropic nations. When all told the percentages of UN activity financed by the top 2 are much higher.