MEMBERSHIP

MEMBERSHIP

• All the world's undisputed independent states are members of the United Nations. South Sudan, which joined 14 July 2011, is the most recent addition, bringing a total of 193 UN member states.

• The UN Charter outlines the membership rules:
  1)Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving states that accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations.
  2)The admission of any such state to membership in the United Nations will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. Chapter II, Article 4. 

• In addition, there are two non-member observer states: the Holy See and Palestine. The Cook Islands and Niue, both states in free association with New Zealand, are full members of several UN specialized agencies and have had their "full treaty-making capacity" recognized by the Secretariat. 

• Indonesia was the first and the only nation that attempted to withdraw its membership from the United Nations, in protest to the election of Malaysia as a non-permanent member of the Security Council in 1965 during conflict between the two countries.

•  After forming CONEFO as a short-lived rival to the UN, Indonesia resumed its membership in 1966. 

Group of 77 

• The Group of 77 (or the G77) at the UN is a loose coalition of developing nations that is designed to promote its members' collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the UN. 

• Seventy-seven nations founded the organization, but by November 2013 the organization had since expanded to 133 member countries. 

• The group was founded 15 June 1964 by the "Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries" issued at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (or the UNCTAD). 

• The group held its first major meeting in Algiers in 1967, where it adopted the Charter of Algiers and established the basis for permanent institutional structures. 

• With the adoption of the New International Economic Order by developing countries in the 1970s, the work of the G77 spread throughout the UN system. 

• Similar groupings of developing states also operate in other UN agencies, such as the Group of 24 (or the G-24), which operates in the IMF on monetary affairs. 

• The New International Economic Order (NIEO) is a set of proposals advocated by developing countries to end economic colonialism and dependency through a new interdependent economy. The main NIEO document recognized that the current international economic order "was established at a time when most of the developing countries are in it's resolution.