The General Assembly has approved a $3.59 billion budget for the United Nations for 2024, including establishing a special account to finance the organisation’s peace-building fund.

In a statement on Sunday, the Office of the President of the General Assembly stated that the budget was approved on Friday.

On Friday, the 193-member General Assembly also adopted nearly $50 million in additional funding for decisions taken by the Human Rights Council, the UN’s primary forum on human rights matters.

It also decided to establish the peace-building account, a dedicated multi-year special account, as a modality to finance the peace-building fund. 

Additionally, it approved $50 million of assessed contributions per annum to fund the account starting from January 1, 2025.

The peace-building fund is the UN’s leading instrument for investing in prevention and peace-building efforts and supporting joint responses to address critical peace-building opportunities, connecting development, humanitarian, human rights, and peace-building pillars.

In October, UN Secretary-General António Guterres presented a $3.3 billion budget proposal to the General Assembly, stressing to delegates at the Assembly’s main budget committee that “the role of the United Nations has never been more vital.”

In his presentation, the UN chief also voiced concern over the organisation’s deteriorating liquidity situation, urging countries to ensure timely and full payments.

The Assembly further adopted a resolution including provisions to expand the coverage of UN official intergovernmental meetings in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish.

The 20 positions, classified as general temporary assistants (GTA), include editors, press officers, and assistants working in the four languages.

Similarly, in a statement, Mr Guterres welcomed the Security Council’s unanimous adoption, on December 21, 2023, of Resolution 2719 (2023) on financing African Union-led Peace Support Operations.

According to the statement, the secretary-general is committed to further strengthening the strategic partnership with the African Union, including through the implementation of this milestone resolution.

Also on Friday, the General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the killing of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) staff and the destruction of buildings under the UN flag amidst the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip.

As of Saturday, 142 UNRWA staff members had been killed, and 123 installations damaged. Other UN agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), have also lost their personnel.

(NAN)