Netherlands and the United Nations

Kingdom of the Netherlands

United Nations membership
Membership	Full member
Since	10 December 1945
UNSC seat	Non-permanent
Permanent representative	Lise Gregoire-van Haaren

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is one of the 51 founding members of the United Nations having signed the United Nations Conference on International Organization in 1945. ^[1] It primarily represents the northwestern European country of the Netherlands, although it also represents the smaller island countries of Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten under the Kingdom's control. ^[2]

Netherlands has been a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for six terms (a total of 10 years), with the most recent being a 2018 one-year term.

The Netherlands is a charter member of the United Nations and participates in all of its specialised agencies. It is home to The Hague, which is the headquarters of the International Court of Justice and Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The Netherlands has contributed 13 troops to United Nations peacekeeping efforts as of 2024 ^[update] . ^[3]

Classification

  African Group

  Asia and the Pacific Group

  Eastern European Group

  Latin American and Caribbean Group

  Western European and Others Group

The Kingdom of Netherlands participates in the Western European and Others Group regional grouping. Its constituent countries are part of different geographical subregions: The Netherlands is part of Western Europe while Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten are part of the Caribbean subregion and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) intermediary region. In addition, the Caribbean Netherlands non-country islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba also belong to the Caribbean subregion and LAC intermediary region. ^[4]

Activities

Funding

The regular budget of the United Nations is financed through compulsory contributions from its member states. From 2022 to 2024, the Netherlands contributed 1.356% of the UN regular budget. This placed the Netherlands as the 15th nation by contribution amount. ^[5]

Security Council

The Netherlands has held a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council six times since its entry in 1945. ^[6]

Security Council terms

Election	Votes (Pl.-Rd.)	Term
January 1946	37/50 (5th-R1)	1946
1950	47/59 (2nd-R1)	1951–52
1964	Assembly motion	1965–66
1983	103/155 (1st-R2)	1983–84
1998	122/176 (2nd-R1)	1999–00
2017	184/188 (1st-R1)	2018

Peacekeeping

As of September 2025 ^[update] , the Netherlands participates in two peacekeeping missions led by the UN. ^[7]

Peacekeeping missions

Region	Mission	Personnel
Lebanon	United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)	1
Middle East and North Africa	United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)	11

Positions held

The Netherlands has had one President of the United Nations General Assembly in Eelco van Kleffens, who served in 1954. Eleven Dutch representatives have served as President of the United Nations Security Council and two Dutch representatives have headed the Economic and Social Council. The nation has served on the United Nations Credentials Committee six times. ^{[8] [9] [10]}

The Netherlands has never held the Secretary-General of the United Nations or Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations positions. ^[11]

United Nations positions held

Position	Person	Term
President of the United Nations General Assembly	Eelco van Kleffens	1954
Presidency of the United Nations Security Council		17 July–16 August 1946
	D. J. von Balluseck	March 1951, April 1951, March 1952
	J. G. de Beus	June 1965, May 1966
	Max van der Stoel	December 1983
	Peter van Walsum	September 1999, November 2000
	Jozias van Aartsen	September 1999, November 2000
	Eveline Herfkens	November 2000
	Karel van Oosterom	March 2018
	Sigrid Kaag
	Stef Blok
	Mark Rutte
President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council	C. W. A. Schurmann	1960
	Hugo Scheltema	1979
United Nations Credentials Committee	—	1956, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1996, 2016

Permanent representative

Netherlands has a mission to the UN led by a permanent representative, also known as a UN Ambassador. The position is currently held by Lise Gregoire-van Haaren, who presented credentials in October 2024. ^[12]

See also

• Category:Netherlands and the United Nations  (11)

References

1. Kurtas, Susan. "Research Guides: UN Membership: Founding Members". research.un.org. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
2. "The Netherlands and the United Nations: What you need to know". unric.org .
3. "Troop and police contributors". United Nations Peacekeeping. Retrieved 2024-04-27.
4. "Countries or areas / geographical regions". un.org .
5. United Nations General Assembly Session 73 RES271. Scale of assessments for the apportionment of the expenses of the United NationsA/RES/73/271 page 3. 24 December 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2025.
6. United Nations General Assembly Session 59 Note verbale dated 20 July 2005 from the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-GeneralA/59/881 page 5. 26 July 2005. Retrieved 21 November 2025.
7. "Contribution of Uniformed Personnel to UN by Country, Mission, and Personnel Type" (PDF). un.org . 30 September 2025.
8. "Past PRESIDENCIES of the United Nations SECURITY COUNCIL". thegreenpapers.com .
9. "Past Presidents of the General Assembly". un.org .
10. "Presidents of the ECOSOC". un.org .
11. "Deputy Secretary-General". un.org .
12. "LIST OF PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVES AND OBSERVERS TO THE UNITED NATIONS IN NEW YORK" (PDF). un.org .

External links

• The United Nations at the Government of the Netherlands website