Brazil pays off debts with international organizations and strengthens support for multilateralism

In 2023, the Brazilian government paid off BRL 4.6 billion in financial commitments to international institutions, distributed among regular contributions to international organizations, paying up quotas in multilateral banks and replenishing funds.

According to information from the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Planning and Budget, which issued a joint statement on Thursday (4/1), the country ended the year fully paying its contributions to the regular budget of the United Nations (UN), amounting to approximately BRL 289 million, and paying off liabilities of BRL 1.1 billion relating to peace missions. With this, in addition to restoring compliance and ensuring the country's right to vote in the United Nations General Assembly in 2024, Brazil strengthens its capacity for international action and its commitment to the organization and to multilateralism.

Also in the first months of 2023, the payments enabled the recovery of voting rights in organizations such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The country has also paid off significant environmental and climate change debts, including contributions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, which is especially significant given the selection of Belém, Pará, to host COP-30 in 2025.

In addition, liabilities arising from other conventions have been settled, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (Stockholm Convention) and the Convention on Mercury (Minamata Convention).

Brazil ended 2023 having also honored its financial obligations to organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In the regional sphere, contributions to the MERCOSUR Structural Convergence Fund (FOCEM) were settled, with the payment of approximately BRL 500 million, and the debt with the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), the MERCOSUR Secretariat and PARLASUR was paid off. Also, within MERCOSUR, contributions were paid to the Institute for Public Policy on Human Rights (IPPDH), the Social Institute (ISM) and the Secretariat of the Permanent Court of Review (TPR).

Brazil's renewed compliance record improves the country's image on the global and regional stage, reaffirms its commitment to multilateralism and reinforces its capacity for diplomatic action in favor of national interests and the principles that govern Brazilian foreign policy.

"Brazil will continue to uphold its international commitments. This will be helped by the change in the budgetary treatment of this type of expenditure in the Draft Annual Budget Law for 2024, approved on December 22 by the National Congress, which reclassifies as compulsory expenditures related to contributions and first rounds of payments to multilateral development banks resulting from commitments under international treaties enacted by Brazil, which will avoid the future accumulation of liabilities with international organizations governed by public international law," concludes the text of the note.