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-fifth session
The Committee held its eighty-fifth session from 2-20 June 2025. The report of the Committee is contained in document .
At its eighty-fifth session, with regard to the methodology for the scale of assessments, the Committee on Contributions:
- Recalled and reaffirmed its recommendation that the scale of assessments be based on the most current, comprehensive, reliable, verifiable and comparable data available for gross national income (GNI);
- Recommended that the General Assembly encourage Member States to submit gross national disposable income (GNDI) data to the Statistics Division of the Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat, 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;
- 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;
- Recommended that the General Assembly call upon Member States to submit the required national accounts questionnaires under the 2008 SNA on a timely basis;
- Recommended that conversion rates based on market exchange rates be used for the scale of assessments, 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;
- Agreed that, once chosen, there were advantages in using the same base period for as long as possible;
- 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 consideration;
- Noted that an alternative approach for establishing the low per capita income threshold could be the world average per capita debt-adjusted GNI;
- Noted that an alternative approach for establishing the low per capita income threshold could be an inflation-adjusted threshold;
- Decided to further consider all elements of the scale methodology at its eighty-sixth session, taking into consideration guidance from the General Assembly.
With regard to other suggestions and other possible elements for the scale methodology, the Committee on Contributions:
- Agreed that any scheme of limits should not be an element of the scale methodology;
- Decided to study further the questions of large scale-to-scale changes in rates of assessment, discontinuity and annual recalculation on the basis of any guidance thereon by the General Assembly;
- Decided to further study the question of safeguard measures at future sessions and any related ideas at its next session;
- Decided to consider further the scope of any reform of the scale methodology.
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 Member States in arrears under Article 19 of the Charter of the United Nations 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.
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 eightieth session: Bolivia (Plurinational State of) and Sao Tome and Principe.
Decided to hold its eighty-sixth session from 1 to 19 June 2026.
