Meetings management
Meeting services
The Department for General Assembly and Conference Management is responsible for providing the following services for meetings held in conference rooms located in the General Assembly Building and the Conference Building in New York:
- Meeting planning and programming
- Meeting room servicing
- Interpretation
- Documentation and publishing services, including:
- Editing
- Translation
- Text processing and desktop publishing
- Printing
- Distribution
- Official, written meeting records
For general enquiries regarding meeting requests and related services, please contact the Meetings Management Section (12th floor, Secretariat Building, email).
For general enquiries regarding documents, please contact the Documents Management Section (12th floor, Secretariat Building; email).
For general enquiries regarding printing and distribution of documents and related services, please contact the Meetings Support Section (room L1B-100, first basement, Library Building; email).
Calendar of conferences and meetings of the United Nations
The annual calendar of conferences and meetings of the United Nations is reviewed by the Committee on Conferences, which forwards it to the General Assembly for its approval.
The calendar contains the details of conferences and meetings that have legislative mandates and budgetary provisions (entitlements). It also contains a separate section with details of conferences and meetings of the principal organs of the specialized agencies, the International Atomic Energy Agency and treaty bodies established under the auspices of the United Nations.
The daily programme of meetings, with information on conference room assignments, is displayed on electronic screens outside the conference rooms and in the Journal of the United Nations.
In addition to those meetings that are listed in the official calendar of conferences, meeting rooms and resources are also required for informal consultations while formal meetings are taking place; for briefings to and meetings of groups of Member States; and for meetings and events sponsored by permanent or observer missions to the United Nations or United Nations system entities. All of these meetings and events are programmed by the Meetings Management Section.
How to reserve a meeting room in gMeets (One-Stop-Shop)
All authorized requesting entities, including permanent missions, that wish to book conference rooms and meeting services should submit a request through the portal.
gMeets is a single-entry point to submit requests for meeting services at United Nations Headquarters. Through an easy-to-use self-service web interface, clients now have the flexibility to select from a range of meeting services, including conference room allocation; interpretation; nameplates, podium signs and room set-up; publishing material in the ; audio-visual services; webcast services; and access and security-related services and loaning of technological equipment.
Information on meeting services, as well as on costs, is made available to facilitate informed decisions by requesters. The tool streamlines and facilitates coordination with and among service providers to enable the Secretariat to handle requests for meeting services more efficiently.
To access (One-Stop-Shop):
- Log in at
- Enter your gMeets username and password
- Begin the process of creating a new request for room and meeting services under the “New Request” tab
- Follow three simple steps: provide basic information, request services, and review and submit request.
Stay up to date with the status of requests in the “All My Requests” section.
For questions or feedback, please email.
All mandatory fields, including the screening questions, must be completed. Requests are reviewed and confirmed by the Meetings Management Section. Requesters may check the status of their requests in the “All My Requests” section of the portal. For additional information, please contact the Meetings Management Section (email).
Duration of meetings
Morning meetings are generally scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and afternoon meetings from 3 to 6 p.m. (official meeting hours). Lunchtime bookings are strictly limited to 1.15 to 2.30 p.m. Interpretation is not provided for lunchtime meetings or events.
Punctuality. Owing to the large number of meeting requests and the limited facilities available, it is essential that meetings start on time and that the above schedule be strictly followed. Therefore, delegations are urged to be present at meetings on time. In its resolution 59/313 of 12 September 2005, the General Assembly strongly urged all officers presiding over meetings of the Assembly to start meetings on time.
Scheduling of meetings. It is advisable to schedule related meetings consecutively to ensure the maximum utilization of available services. For ease of transition, however, there should be a short gap between unrelated meetings.
Cancellations. If a scheduled meeting is cancelled, the organizers are requested to inform the Meetings Management Section immediately to allow for the reallocation of resources.
Requests for interpretation services. Requests for interpretation from regional and other major groupings of Member States, as well as other informal meetings, can be accommodated only if services originally earmarked for meetings of Charter or mandated bodies have been released. Interpretation services are available only from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 to 6 p.m. on weekdays (Monday to Friday).
Use of premises
The use of United Nations premises is governed by administrative instruction , supplemented by a note verbale from the Department, most recently DGACM/OUSG/03/2018 of 9 April 2018. The administrative instruction and the note verbale provide up-to-date guidance on the use of the United Nations conference rooms, clarify the roles and responsibilities of each party involved and emphasize that all meetings and events must adhere to the principles of the United Nations and be non-commercial in nature.
Use and care of electronic equipment
Delegates and other meeting participants are requested not to take food and liquids other than water into the conference rooms, to avoid damaging the simultaneous interpretation audio systems and other technical equipment. Care should also be taken when using microphones, channel selectors, voting switches and audio earphones, as these are sensitive electronic devices. Please note that placing a cellular phone near a microphone may interfere with sound quality.
Journal of the United Nations
The daily , featuring information on the current day’s meetings and on forthcoming meetings, and summaries of official meetings held the previous day, is available in a multilingual digital format, compatible with mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, at . The Journal of the United Nations offers a downloadable PDF for the daily programme and individual PDFs that can be downloaded for each meeting. The meeting-level PDF contains information about the meeting such as the agenda, documents, eStatements, summary of the meeting, official records, webcast and meetings coverage. In addition, the progressive web app is a downloadable application that allows users to read the Journal of the United Nations on their devices. Instead of manually going to the Journal of the United Nations website through a browser, the progressive web app allows readers to view the Journal of the United Nations directly from an app. The progressive web app for the Journal of the United Nations is available in all six official languages. Enquiries regarding the Journal of the United Nations should be addressed to the Journal Unit (email).
Interpretation
In meetings for which interpretation is provided, statements made in any of the six official languages of the United Nations are interpreted into the other official languages. Speakers are requested to deliver the statement at a speed that is interpretable. While delegations are increasingly given a time frame in which to deliver their statements, they are kindly requested to do so at a normal speed, to enable the interpreters to provide an accurate and complete rendition of their statements. When statements are delivered at a fast pace, the quality of the interpretation may suffer. It is suggested not to exceed the speed of about 100 to 120 words per minute (as a guide for statements delivered in English) to ensure that the statement is delivered at a normal pace.
Any speaker may also make a statement in a language other than the official languages. In such cases, in accordance with rule 53 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, the delegation in question must provide an interpreter from the non- official language into an official language. Exceptional arrangements for bidirectional interpretation facilities for Heads of State or Government may be requested. Ability to accommodate such requests will be very limited. Delegations seeking to provide their own interpreters for non-official languages are requested to inform the Meetings Management Section of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management well in advance and no later than three business days prior to the expected usage of a spare interpretation booth, by email and to copy the Interpretation Service, the Protocol and Liaison Service and the Broadcast and Conference Support Section. The Meetings Management Section will provide further instructions.
Written translations of statements delivered in official languages
“Read out verbatim” or “check against delivery” should be specified on the first page of the text when delegations provide a written translation of their statement. For written texts provided in more than one official language, delegations should indicate clearly which one is to be accepted as the official text.
Read out verbatim. Interpreters will follow the translation. Therefore, any deviation from the text on the part of the speaker, including omissions and additions, is unlikely to be reflected in the interpretation.
Check against delivery. Interpreters will follow the speaker and not the translation. If the speaker deviates from the text, delegations should be aware that the interpretation heard by the audience will not necessarily correspond to the translation that they may have distributed to the audience and the press.
Microphones. The microphones start to operate only when the representative taking the floor has been called upon to speak and the delegate has pushed the button. To ensure the best possible recording and interpretation of the statement, representatives should speak directly and clearly into the microphone, in particular when providing figures, quotations or highly technical material or when reading from a prepared text. Tapping on the microphone to test if it is working, turning pages and making or answering cellular phone calls should be avoided.
Records of meetings
Written meeting records are provided for the plenary meetings of the principal organs, meetings of the Main Committees of the General Assembly and, on a limited and selective basis, meetings of certain other bodies. Meeting records are either verbatim records or summary records. The records are prepared by the Secretariat and are subject to correction by delegations. However, corrections that add to, or alter the sense of, a statement as actually delivered cannot be accepted.
In addition, audiovisual recordings of meetings are available for consultation.
- Verbatim records (also called PVs) cover the proceedings of a meeting in full. Each verbatim record in an official language of the United Nations contains translations of speeches made in other official languages and edited transcriptions of speeches delivered in the original language.
- Delegates are advised that if any portion of a written statement is not actually read out, then it will not appear in the record of that meeting.
- Summary records (also called SRs) cover the proceedings in a concise, abbreviated form. They are not intended to include each intervention or to reproduce statements textually.
- The provision of written records (verbatim or summary) for United Nations bodies is regulated pursuant to decisions of the General Assembly and other principal organs.
Corrections to meeting records
- Corrections to verbatim records should be sent to the Verbatim Reporting Service.
- Corrections to summary records should be sent to the Documents Management Section.
Corrections should be in the form indicated in the corrections footnote on the front page of the verbatim record or summary record. If corrections are inserted in a copy of the record, the front page of the corrected record should bear the signature and title of an authorized official of the delegation concerned.
Corrections to verbatim records should be limited to errors and omissions in statements as actually delivered, that is, in the original language. When a request is submitted for a correction, a check is made against the audiovisual recording of the relevant speech.
Corrections to summary records should not cover points of style or include lengthy additions that would upset the general balance of the summary record.
The text of a speech should not be submitted in lieu of corrections.
Issuance of corrections
Records of United Nations bodies are reissued electronically and posted on the in corrected form.
Copies of prepared texts of statements in plenary meetings and in meetings of the Main Committees
To facilitate the provision of interpretation, verbatim reporting and summary record services, delegations are requested to submit their statements (preferably in Microsoft Word, as well as the PDF versions) by email to estatements@un.org. The title of the meeting and the name of the speaker, as well as the agenda item, should be indicated in the subject line of the email and in the heading of the statement. The statement should be submitted well in advance of the meeting, but no later than two hours before delivery, and not in hard copy. The statements will remain embargoed until their delivery, after which they will be available in the eStatements section of the Journal of the United Nations.