Article 19

Article 19 of the United Nations Charter suspends the voting privileges in the General Assembly for Member States whose arrears exceed their assessed contributions from the previous two (calendar) years. It reads as follows: A Member of the United Nations which is in arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the Organization shall have no vote in the General Assembly if the amount of its arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the preceding two full years. The General Assembly may, nevertheless, permit such a member to vote if it is satisfied that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the Member.

Exemptions
Member States subject to Article 19 who argue that their failure to pay is due to conditions beyond their control may make a submission through the Committee on Contributions, which meets in June. One of the first orders of business of the Fifth Committee during the main session is to make a determination on requests for exemption of the application of Article 19, which is promptly acted upon by the General Assembly through a resolution under the "scales of assessment" agenda item (see table below). These exemptions cover the entirety of the session.

Application of Article 19
In January of each year, it is not uncommon for many Member States who were not in arrears under Article 19 at the end of the previous year lose their vote in the General Assembly with the start of the new financial period. To regain their vote, these Member States must either pay the minimum amount required to bring their arrears below the threshold for Article 19 or request an exemption through the Committee on Contributions, which would only take effect if approved by the General Assembly after the start of the next session.

The list of Member States to which this applies is communicated each January in a letter from the Secretary-General to the President of the General Assembly. Whenever one of these Member States makes at least the minimum payment and is therefore able to vote again, this is communicated to the General Assembly in an addendum to the letter to the PGA.