Skip links
Skip to Content
play
Live
Show navigation menu
Navigation menu
News
Show more news sections
Middle East
Africa
Asia
US & Canada
Latin America
Europe
Asia Pacific
Israel War on Gaza
Features
Opinion
Video
More
Show more sections
Economy
Ukraine war
Coronavirus
Climate Crisis
Investigations
Interactives
In Pictures
Science & Technology
Sport
Podcasts
play
Live
Click here to search
search
In Pictures
Gallery
UN Facts and Figures
The United Nations is the largest multilateral contributor to post-conflict stabilisation worldwide [GALLO/GETTY]
Published On 30 Sep 2009
30 Sep 2009
facebook
twitter
whatsapp
copylink
Only the US deploys more military personnel to the field than the UN. Currently, there are almost 116,000 personnel serving on 17 peacekeeping missions [EPA]
The UN does not have its own military force. It depends on contributions from member states. As of April 30, 2009, 117 countries contributed military and police personnel to UN peacekeeping including troops from South Korea (pictured above) [EPA]
More than 82,000 of the personnel serving were troops and military observers and about 10,000 were police. In addition, there were more than 6,000 international civilian personnel, nearly 15,000 local civilian staff and some 2,200 UN volunteers from over 160 nations including these medical staff treating Tsunami survivors in 2004 [GALLO/GETTY]
The US is the biggest contributor to the UN, covering 22 per cent of its budget [GALLO/GETTY]
Japan pays 17 per cent of the total UN budget and is the seconnd biggest contributor. Yet that is not enough to secure it a permanent seat on the Security Council [EPA]
Germany is the third largest contributor paying almost nine per cent of the budget but it also does not have a permanent seat at the UN big table. Germany also has around 7,000 troops serving in peacekeeping missions [GALLO/GETTY]
The approved peacekeeping budget for the period from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 was approximately $7.1 billion. This represents about 0.5 per cent of global military spending [GALLO/GETTY]
A recent government study estimated that it would cost the US twice as much as the UN to conduct a peacekeeping operation similar to the UN Mission in Haiti - $876 million compared to $428 million budgeted by the UN for the first 14 months of the mission [EPA]
There have been 1,884 Security Council resolutions passed in UN history [GALLO/GETTY]
Only the Security Council can issue resolutions and sanction interventions or peacekeeping operations [GALLO/GETTY]
The Security Council authorises an estimate of troops and money for each particular operation. It is then up to the UN member countries to come up with the troops and the money. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, the Security Council requested 19,000 troops but got only 17,000 for the mission [EPA]
The Security Council does not have a separate charter from that of the UN as a whole, a copy of which is held up by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during the UN General Assembly [AFP]
UN General Assembly and Security Council agendas are separate. Countries or conflicts on one cannot be on the other [AFP]