UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on member states to address unpaid dues and overhaul the world body’s financial rules.
Published January 30, 2026
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the UN faces “imminent financial collapse” due to unpaid annual dues and other problems.
Al Jazeera on Friday reviewed a letter Guterres sent to all UN member states earlier this week, warning that the world body was facing a serious financial crisis.
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The letter urged member states to agree to a review of the UN’s financial rules or accept “the realistic prospect of financial failure of the UN” and to pay annual dues.
Guterres did not blame any particular country for the UN’s financial problems, but his appeal comes as US President Donald Trump moves to cut Washington’s funding to the multilateral body.
The Trump administration announced plans this month to withdraw from several U.N. agencies and recently launched a so-called “peace commission” initiative, which some experts say is aimed at bypassing the U.N.
Human Rights Watch United Nations Executive Director Louis Charbonneau recently warned that “Judging by the $1 billion in permanent board fees, Mr. Trump’s board appears to be a kind of paid global club.”
“Instead of handing President Trump a $1 billion check, governments should work together to protect the United Nations and other institutions established to protect international human rights and humanitarian law, the global rule of law, and accountability,” Charbonneau said.
The annual membership fee that UN member states must pay is set according to each country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and debt.
The United States accounts for 22% of the core budget, followed by China at 20%.
But Guterres said outstanding dues had reached a record $1.57 billion by the end of 2025, without naming the countries in which they were owed.
“Either all member states meet their obligations to pay in full and on time, or they need to overhaul their fiscal rules to prevent imminent financial collapse,” he said.
In early January, the United Nations approved a budget of $3.45 billion for 2026, 7 percent less than last year, as the international organization sought to cut costs amid financial difficulties.
Still, Guterres warned in his letter that the organization could run out of money by July.
One of the problems is rules that are now considered outdated. This rule requires international organizations to refund hundreds of millions of dollars in unused dues to states each year.
“In other words, we are stuck in a Kafkaesque cycle where we are expected to return cash that does not exist,” Guterres said in the letter.
As of Thursday, only 36 of the UN’s 193 member states had paid their full regular contributions for 2026, the UN said on its website.
