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.
Seventy-first session
The Committee held its seventy-first session from 6 to 24 June 2011. The report of the Committee is contained in document A/66/11.
With regard to the methodology for the scale of assessments, the Committee:
(a) Recalled and reaffirmed its recommendation that the scale of assessments continue to be based on the most current, comprehensive and comparable gross
national income data and recommended that the Assembly encourage Member States which have not yet done so to implement the System of National Accounts, 1993, and to report gross disposable income data as available;
(b) Recalled and reaffirmed its recommendation that, once chosen, there were advantages in using the same base period for as long as possible so as to smooth out over the course of consecutive scale periods the impact for every Member State;
(c) Recalled and reaffirmed its recommendation that conversion rates based on market exchange rates should be used for the scale of assessments, except where that would cause excessive fluctuation and distortions in the gross national income of some Member States expressed in United States dollars, in which case price-adjusted rates of exchange or other appropriate conversion rates should be employed and expressed its intention to continue to study this element on the basis of further input from the Statistics Division and in light of any guidance from the Assembly;
(d) Decided to further consider all the elements of the scale methodology at its next session in the light of any guidance from the Assembly.
The Committee also decided to further consider the questions of annual recalculation and large scale-to-scale increases in rates of assessment at its future sessions in the light of any guidance from the General Assembly.
With regard to multi-year payment plans, the Committee concluded that the system of multi-year payment plans continues to be a viable means available to Member States to assist them in reducing their unpaid assessed contributions and in providing a way for them to demonstrate their commitment to meeting their financial obligations to the United Nations. The Committee emphasized the importance of annual payments exceeding current assessments to avoid a further accumulation of arrears. The Committee noted that no new multi-year payment plans had been submitted and recommended that the General Assembly encourage Member States in arrears for the purposes of the application of Article 19 of the Charter of the United Nations to consider submitting multi-year payment plans.
With regard to 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 the sixty-sixth session of the Assembly: the Central African Republic, the Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe and Somalia.
Under other matters the Committee decided to hold its seventy-second session from 4 to 29 June 2012.