Pattern of Conferences

A/RES/53/208View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 117 Pattern of conferences, published in 1999.

What else is in this group?

107 documents · 1958–2025

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2025).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/234	Pattern of conferences	5,780	–
2024	A/RES/79/248	Pattern of conferences	6,725	–
2023	A/RES/78/245	Pattern of conferences	6,396	–
2023	A/RES/77/255	Pattern of conferences	6,274	–
2021	A/RES/76/237	Pattern of conferences	6,474	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

What’s in this document?

91 operative paragraphs

A

Takes note with concern of the observations of the Committee on Conferences in paragraph 135 of its report, and encourages members to participate in the work of the Committee;

Invites the Committee on Conferences to consider the question of the participation of observers in the work of the Committee in accordance with the relevant rules of procedure of the General Assembly;

Notes with appreciation the work of the Committee on Conferences, and takes note of its report;

Approves the draft revised calendar of conferences and meetings of the United Nations for 1999 as submitted by the Committee on Conferences,³ subject to the provisions of the present resolution;

³Ibid., annex.

Authorizes the Committee on Conferences to make adjustments to the calendar of conferences and meetings for 1999 that may become necessary as a result of actions and decisions taken by the General Assembly at its fifty-third session;

Requests the Secretary-General to provide all the conference services required as a result of decisions taken by the General Assembly at its fifty-third session, taking into account, as necessary, the procedures established by the Assembly in its resolutions 41/213 of 19 December 1986 and 42/211 of 21 December 1987;

Reaffirms its decision that the headquarters rule shall be adhered to by all bodies;

Decides that waivers to the headquarters rule shall be granted solely on the basis of the calendar of conferences and meetings of the United Nations recommended by the Committee on Conferences for adoption by the General Assembly;

Invites all its subsidiary bodies that are authorized to meet away from their established headquarters to keep under review the exception to the headquarters rule in the light of their current work situation and to report any changes to the General Assembly through the Committee on Conferences;

Notes with appreciation that the Secretariat took into account the arrangements referred to in paragraphs 5 and 6 of section A of General Assembly resolution 52/214 and that the two holidays of Id al-Fitr and Id al-Adha, which occur in 1999 on 18 January and 29 March, respectively, shall be observed as official holidays of the United Nations, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure strict implementation of those arrangements when preparing all future draft calendars of conferences and meetings of the Organization;

Decides that United Nations bodies should be invited to avoid holding meetings on 9 April 1999 and that this arrangement should be taken into account when drafting future calendars of conferences and meetings;

Requests the Committee on Conferences to consider, at its next session, the proposal that United Nations bodies should avoid holding meetings on lunar New Year’s Day;

Emphasizes that, when planning the calendar of conferences and meetings, every effort should be made to avoid simultaneous peak periods at the various duty stations, and requests the Secretariat, when drafting future calendars of conferences and meetings, to merge into one section the draft list of meetings of treaty bodies established under the auspices of the United Nations and the draft calendar of conferences and meetings of the principal organs of the specialized agencies;

Also emphasizes the importance of providing adequate conference-servicing resources to all United Nations conference centres;

Notes with appreciation that the overall utilization factor for 1997 exceeded the benchmark of 80 per cent, in particular at Geneva and Vienna;

Notes the efforts by the Secretary-General to improve utilization rates of the conference facilities at the United Nations Office at Nairobi for 1996 and 1997;

Expresses concern that the conference facilities at the United Nations Office at Nairobi are still underutilized, as recorded during the period 1996–1997;

Reiterates its call for better utilization of the conference facilities at Nairobi;

Requests the Secretary-General, in view of the fact that the United Nations Office at Nairobi has been upgraded to a full-fledged United Nations centre, to explore the possibility of establishing a permanent interpretation service at the centre and to submit a comprehensive report thereon to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session;

Also requests the Secretary-General, without prejudice to the practices currently used to meet interpretation requirements, to examine the provision of interpretation services to other locations from permanent interpretation structures based in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session, taking into account the request contained in paragraph 19 above for the establishment of a permanent interpretation service at Nairobi;

Invites all subsidiary bodies of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme and the Commission on Human Settlements and encourages Member States, intergovernmental bodies and regional and other major groupings to consider increasing their use of the conference facilities at Nairobi;

Reiterates its request to the Secretary-General to assist the aforementioned bodies in improving this situation, and requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session, through the Committee on Conferences, on the actions taken to this end;

Reiterates its request to the Committee on Conferences to continue to consult with those bodies that consistently utilized less than the applicable benchmark figure of their allocated resources for the past three sessions, with a view to making appropriate recommendations in order to achieve the optimum utilization of conference-servicing resources;

Requests that the Chairperson of the Committee on Conferences transmit a letter to the chairpersons of all bodies that utilized less than the applicable benchmark figure (80 per cent) of their allocated conference resources in the previous year, informing them of the problem and drawing their attention to the significant loss of meeting time, with a view to encouraging appropriate action on their part so as to improve the utilization of conference resources;

Notes the importance of meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States for the smooth functioning of sessional bodies, in view of the increased requests for meetings of regional and other major groups, and welcomes the fact that 81 per cent of the requests for such meetings were met;

Notes with concern the difficulties experienced by some Member States owing to the lack of conference services for some meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States;

Regrets that 19 per cent of the requests for interpretation services made by regional and other major groupings of Member States were not met, while recognizing that meetings of Charter and mandated bodies must be serviced as a priority;

Decides to include all necessary resources in the budget for the next biennium to provide interpretation services for meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States upon request by those groupings, on an ad hoc basis, in accordance with established practice, and requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session, through the Committee on Conferences, a report on the implementation of this decision;

Urges intergovernmental bodies to spare no effort at the planning stage to take into account meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States, to make provision for such meetings in their programmes of work and to notify the conference services, well in advance, of any cancellations so that unutilized conference-servicing resources may, to the extent possible, be reassigned to meetings of regional and other major groupings of States;

Deeply regrets that the reports requested in paragraphs 9 and 15 of section A of its resolution 52/214 were not submitted to the General Assembly, and notes, in this context, that those reports were presented only in an oral form to the Committee on Conferences;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit the reports requested in paragraphs 9 and 15 of section A of its resolution 52/214 before 31 March 1999, and decides, without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 8 (a) of its resolution 50/206 C of 23 December 1995, that an oral report cannot substitute for a report requested by the General Assembly;

Also requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the use of remote interpretation and translation will not affect the quality of interpretation and translation and will not in itself lead to a reduction of language posts;

Further requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session, through the Committee on Conferences and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, a report on possible measures to alleviate the excessive vacancy rates in language services at some duty stations and ensure the required quality of conference services Secretariat-wide;

Requests the Secretary-General to intensify his efforts aimed at filling vacancies in language services at all duty stations;

Also requests the Secretary-General, when filling the posts of translators and interpreters, irrespective of the proposed contractual status of candidates, to take duly into account their professional qualifications, including pre-job training and experience, in order to maintain at all times the highest possible quality in the interpretation and translation services, and to ensure the equal treatment of language units of the Secretariat;

Stresses that the quality of interpretation in the six official languages should be improved in accordance with its resolution 52/214, and decides that the standards that govern the staffing of the interpretation booths shall continue to be observed;

Welcomes the new organizational structure of conference services, which will allow for more effective coordination among the four United Nations conference-servicing centres in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi, and requests the Secretary-General to review the administrative instruction of 8 May 1987⁴ on guidelines for the preparation of host Government agreements falling under General Assembly resolution 40/243 of 18 December 1985 so as to reflect the new organizational structure.

⁴ST/AI/342.

B

Expresses deep concern about deficiencies in the quality of some reports and documents originating in the Secretariat, and requests the Secretariat to take all necessary measures to address the situation and to develop measurements to evaluate improvements made in the quality of reports and documents;

Notes with deep concern the low rate of compliance with the six-week rule for the issuance of documentation;

Reiterates its request to the Secretary-General to ensure that documentation is available in accordance with the six-week rule for the distribution of documents simultaneously in the six official languages of the General Assembly;

Requests the Secretariat to carry out a study on the possible relationship between the late issuance of documentation and the low utilization of conference services by some bodies;

Regrets that there continue to be delays in the submission of documents to the conference services, expresses concern that most of the delay in the issuance of a document is due to the late submission of documents from the substantive departments, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that substantive departments prepare their programme of work to meet the deadline for the issuance of documents;

Reaffirms its decision that, if a report is issued late, the reasons for the delay should be indicated when the report is introduced;

Regrets that its decision taken in paragraph 5 of its resolution 50/206 C has not been implemented;

Decides that if a report is submitted late to the conference services, the reasons for this should be included in a footnote to the document;

Endorses the request of the Committee on Conferences to the Secretariat that a report containing detailed data on the reasons for delays in the issuance of documentation and an analysis of the additional costs incurred by document-processing services and of other financial implications of the late submission and issuance of documents be presented to the Committee at its 1999 substantive session;

Notes with concern that the provisions of paragraphs 24 and 25 of section B of its resolution 52/214 are not always being implemented, despite reiteration of these provisions in its decision 52/471 of 31 March 1998;

Reiterates its request that the Secretary-General direct all departments to include, where appropriate, the following elements in reports originating in the Secretariat:

A summary of the report;

Consolidated conclusions, recommendations and other proposed actions;

Relevant background information;

Reiterates that all documents submitted to legislative organs by the Secretariat and expert bodies for consideration and action should have conclusions and recommendations in bold print;

Stresses once again that press releases should reflect accurately the statements of Member States as delivered in their original languages;

Notes with concern that the provisions of paragraphs 1.21 and 1.22 of the medium-term plan for the period 1998–2001⁷ are not being implemented, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the Department of General Assembly Affairs and Conference Services of the Secretariat conducts consultations and coordinates the assignment of responsibilities for the implementation of all General Assembly resolutions and decisions and follows up to ensure timely action by relevant departments and bodies;

⁷Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-first Session, Supplement No. 6 and corrigendum (A/51/6/Rev.1 and Corr.1).

Stresses once again the need for compliance with existing page limits, and invites all intergovernmental bodies to consider, where appropriate, the possibility of further reducing the length of their reports from thirty-two to twenty pages without adversely affecting either the quality of presentation or the content of the reports;

Calls upon the Secretariat to make its procedures for obtaining waivers to the sixteen-page rule more rigorous, while maintaining, however, the necessary degree of flexibility, with a view to encouraging author departments to reduce the length of their submissions while maintaining high standards of quality;

Requests the Secretariat to submit to the Committee on Conferences, every two years, updated information on the number and length of documents;

Also requests the Secretariat to continue consultations with the secretariats of intergovernmental bodies with a view to informing them on the speedy issuance of unedited verbatim transcripts and the cost savings derived therefrom, and encouraging them to follow the example of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in carrying out the experiment with unedited verbatim transcripts, so as to enable the Committee on Conferences to make final recommendations on the matter;

Emphasizes that the choice of unedited verbatim transcripts should be consistent with the needs of the bodies concerned;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to improve the quality of the translation of documents into the six official languages in a timely manner;

Also requests the Secretary-General to ensure that summary and verbatim records are issued in all six official languages concurrently;

Further requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts, where appropriate, to introduce new technologies such as machine-assisted translation and common terminology databases while ensuring that there are no adverse effects on the quality of documentation and translation;

Notes with appreciation the efforts made by the Secretariat to address the concerns expressed by delegations on translation-related matters, and encourages the Secretariat to continue its efforts to improve quality and proficiency in all six translation services;

Takes note with appreciation of the decision by the Secretariat to reduce the utilization of self-revision to the recommended level so as to ensure the desired quality of parliamentary texts, and emphasizes that the measures taken in relation to the revision of job descriptions, the training of staff, peer review and spot checks and other related initiatives should be continued;

Expresses concern over continued high rates of self-revision during peak workload periods and occasional inadequate translations, which have sometimes hampered the work of delegations, and emphasizes the importance of continuous training for all translators at all duty stations and of developing measures to provide translators with increased support from submitting offices and secretariats;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the post of reviser is provided in the six official languages in accordance with paragraph 19 of section B of its resolution 52/214 and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session;

Stresses that the United Nations should maintain a permanent interpretation and translation system capable of responding to its average workloads;

Encourages the Secretariat to continue its efforts to ensure effective linguistic quality control through to the final stage of document production and distribution and to report to the Committee on Conferences on the steps taken in that regard;

Regrets the difficulties being faced by language service staff in relation to their career development;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit a report to the General Assembly at its fifty-third session analysing such problems as may exist related to career development in language services and taking into account the fact that the numbers and grade levels of staff should be commensurate with the needs of the Organization as well as the fact that requirements differ between languages as well as between duty stations;

Recommends that due account should be taken of returns in terms of, inter alia, possible savings and efficiency gains in planning new technology;

Also recommends that computer-assisted translation systems should be compatible with the existing computer platforms used in the United Nations, that they should be upgradable to future technological developments such as speech recognition and remote access, and that the experience of all duty stations should be taken into account in their development;

Takes note of paragraph 62 of the report of the Committee on Conferences;1

Requests the Secretary-General to submit a report to the General Assembly at its fifty-third session on the impact of economy measures on the delivery of mandated conference services;

Also requests the Secretary-General, when preparing budget proposals for conference services, to ensure that all necessary resources are proposed for such services, giving priority to redressing the inadequacies in the provision of conference services in the most efficient manner for continuous improvements in the quality and delivery of those services;

Decides to defer until its resumed fifty-third session consideration of the report of the Joint Inspection Unit,⁸ the note by the Secretary-General transmitting his comments thereon,⁹ the report of the Committee for Programme and Coordination¹⁰ and the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions¹¹ on United Nations publications.

⁸See A/51/946.

⁹A/52/685.

¹⁰Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-third Session, Supplement No. 16 (A/53/16), part one, chap. IV.

¹¹A/53/669.

C

Welcomes the efforts of the Secretariat to improve access to the optical disk system, particularly the establishment of additional centres for the optical disk system;

Recognizes the efforts to provide wider access to the optical disk system, while continuing to ensure the availability of hard copies of documents for Member States, in particular for developing countries;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all resolutions and decisions, and any annexes thereto, adopted by the principal organs of the United Nations are posted to the optical disk system expeditiously;

Notes with appreciation that the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat launched United Nations Web sites in Russian, Arabic and Chinese this year;

Stresses the need for the continuous development, maintenance and enrichment of United Nations Web sites, with a view to achieving equal treatment of the six official languages on those Web sites;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit proposals in this connection to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session through the Committee on Conferences and the Committee on Information;

Reiterates its request to the Secretary-General to ensure that the texts of all new public documents, in all six official languages, and information materials of the United Nations are made available through the United Nations Web site daily and are accessible to Member States without delay;

Notes that, in addition to the free-of-charge connection, via the Internet, of all permanent and observer missions, requests have been received by the Organization for access to the optical disk system from a number of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations;

Reaffirms that, as provided for in its resolution 51/211 F, access to the optical disk system will continue to be provided free of charge to permanent and observer missions and other government offices of Member States, with a maximum of ten access passwords for each Member State, and that the optical disk system will continue to be made available to all staff of the Secretariat;

Endorses the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions in paragraph 13 of its report5 that a way be found, while maintaining the quality of service and priority given by the General Assembly to the users mentioned in paragraph 1 of its resolution 51/211 F, to apply income generated through optical disk system subscriptions directly to help to meet the cost of maintaining and/or expanding the optical disk system, and to establish a mechanism to monitor satisfaction with the optical disk system.

D

Emphasizes the need for the Secretariat to take into consideration the experience of all duty stations when improvements were made in existing information systems;

Endorses the view expressed by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions in paragraph 10 of its report5 that the report of the Secretary-General does not provide sufficient information at this stage to allow the General Assembly to endorse the full-fledged development of a cost-accounting system;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit a report to the General Assembly at the earliest opportunity, taking into account the observations of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions contained in paragraph 10 of its report.

E

Calls upon representatives of Member States to abide by its decision 38/401 and section E of its resolution 52/214;

Encourages all users of United Nations conference facilities, in order to avoid involuntary exposure to passive smoking, to refrain from smoking, in particular in conference rooms.

Pattern of Conferences

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What else is in this group?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

A

B

C

D

E

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