South Sudan losing UN voting rights, what esle?

By Lul Gatkuoth Gatluak

This third week of January 2023, the Republic of South Sudan and many other United Nations members States including Venezuela, Lebanon Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon are losing their voting rights for failing to pay their arrears contribution.

The UN Charter states that “members whose arrears equal or exceed the amount of their contributions for the preceding two full years lose their voting rights. But it also gives the General Assembly the authority to decide “that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the member,” and in that case, a country can continue to vote, according to The Associated Press.

The suspension of membership will have a lot of implications for countries like South Sudan for the reason that South Sudan is in the middle of instability. It will not have the leverage to influence the member states of the United Nations when it comes to the worldwide organization decision-making, especially on issues like peace and security which are the main thematic area of focus of the Republic of South Sudan.

According to the United Nations secretary-general,  the minimum payments needed to restore voting rights are $76,244,991 for Venezuela, $1,835,303 for Lebanon, $619,103 for Equatorial Guinea, $196,130 for South Sudan, $61,686 for Gabon, and $20,580 for Dominican  Republic.

Literally, the United Nations’ suspension of South Sudan for failure to pay arrears is not the first of its kind, in 2020, representatives of South Sudan have been banned from taking part in an African Union meeting after the South Sudan government failed to pay overdue fees totalling more than $9 million.

 At the same token, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) suspended south Sudan’s membership in 2021 after South Sudan failed to pay its annual contributions fee.

Since its inception, the Republic of South Sudan has been faced with numerous challenges, including on-time salary payments. Oftentimes, salaries are insufficient to address the suffering of civil servants and organized forces.  Members of the armed forces are meeting their end meet by collecting firewood or selling natural toothbrushes (miswak) on the streets of Juba.

Moreover, diplomats in diplomatic missions abroad do not get paid on time. They go for several months, and some embassies have gone unpaid for two to three months.

The government wasted money on nonessential programs, besides many wasteful programs. In 2014, South Sudan paid $3.1 million to Washington lobbyists.  In the same way, it paid Steven Kay $17 million in March 2022. This is the money the nation can use to pay its army, civil servants, members of the diplomatic corps, and finally, its membership arrears to the United Nations, African Union, and IGAD. Let’s hope the membership fee is going to be paid sooner than later.