PAID IN FULL – Grenada makes payment to the UN to regain voting rights

Foreign Affairs Minister, Nickolas Steele, has confirmed that Grenada was indebted to the United Nations, but as of Friday, March 28, the island had regularised its status.

“When we got into office we had a full backlog to take care of as you are aware and we asked for extension for the 2013 to 2014 year. Unfortunately, the payment was not processed in time, but I can say to you that we have taken care of the payment and we once again have voting rights,” Steele said last Friday.

A United Nations report dated January 24, 2014 revealed that Grenada and Dominica were among 18
nations who were in arrears with the UN and would not be able to vote at the UN General Assembly Resolutions. Grenada owed US$45 197, while Dominica owed US$19 734. As of March 26, Dominica had paid up, but Grenada was among four other nations in arrears. The others are Tonga, Vanuatu and Yemen.

This is the second time that Grenada has been deprived of voting rights at the United Nations General Assembly.

In early 2013, Grenada was named among states who lost its voting rights because of its failure to pay outstanding membership fee.

On March 27, 2014, Grenada was unable to vote in a UN General Assembly resolution that reaffirmed Ukraine’s unity and territorial integrity, and adopted a measure underscoring that the mid-March
referendum in Crimea that led to the peninsula’s annexation by Russia “has no validity” and that the parties should “pursue immediately a peaceful resolution of the situation”.

By a vote of 100 in favour to 11 against, with 58 abstentions, the 193-member Assembly called on all States, international organisations and specialised agencies not to recognise any alteration of the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol on the basis of the March 16 referendum “and to refrain from any action or dealing that might be interpreted as recognising any such altered status”.

Unlike the more powerful Security Council, resolutions in the General Assembly cannot be vetoed, but are not legally binding.