Latvia at the United Nations

The UN was founded in 1945 to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. Currently the UN comprises 193 Member States.

Latvia became a member of the UN on 17 September 1991. Participation and advocacy of Latvia’s national interests in the UN and its system organizations is ensured by diplomatic missions of Latvia – Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, Geneva and Vienna, to the Food and Agriculture Organization, to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Latvia has been elected to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for three times with the latest membership held in 2020-2022. Since 2007 Latvia has been a long standing member of the ECOSOC body – the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), currently elected until 2026. Latvia is also a member of another ECOSOC body - Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for 2021-2025 and elected to the Executive Board of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) for 2023-2025.

From 2023 until 2026 Dr. Elīna Šteinerte represents Latvia in the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture.

The first Latvian and Baltic representative of the International Law Commission (ILC) for 2023–2027 is Dr. Mārtiņš Paparinskis.

In addition to the timely payments into international organisations’ regular budgets as a responsible member and a donor, Latvia provides voluntary financial contribution to the UN system and global community. More in infographics for 2021 and 2022.