Pattern of Conferences

A/RES/67/237View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 133 Pattern of conferences, published in 2013.

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.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2013

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2013	A/68/122	Pattern of conferences report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/67/237

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 subjects

Conference and Meeting Services Documents Information Management Interpreting Publications Translation

What’s in this document?

111 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms the role of the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly in administrative and budgetary matters;

Recalls its resolution 14 (I) of 13 February 1946 and the role of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions as a subsidiary body of the General Assembly;

I.Calendar of conferences and meetings

Welcomes the report of the Committee on Conferences for 2012;Error: Reference source not found

Approves the draft revised calendar of conferences and meetings of the United Nations for 2013, as submitted by the Committee on Conferences,⁵ taking into account the observations of the Committee and subject to the provisions of the present resolution;

⁵Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 32 (A/67/32), annex II.

Authorizes the Committee on Conferences to make any adjustments to the calendar of conferences and meetings for 2013 that may become necessary as a result of actions and decisions taken by the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session;

Notes with satisfaction that the Secretariat has taken into account the arrangements referred to in General Assembly resolutions 53/208 A, 54/248, 55/222, 56/242, 57/283 B, 58/250, 59/265, 60/236 A, 61/236, 62/225, 63/248, 64/230, 65/245 and 66/233 concerning Orthodox Good Friday and the official holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and requests all intergovernmental bodies to observe those decisions when planning their meetings;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that any modification to the calendar of conferences and meetings is implemented strictly in accordance with the mandate of the Committee on Conferences and other relevant resolutions of the General Assembly;

Invites Member States to include in new legislative mandates adequate information on the modalities for the organization of conferences or meetings;

Recalls rule 153 of its rules of procedure, and requests the Secretary-General to include the modalities of conferences in resolutions involving expenditure, taking into account the trends of similar meetings, with a view to mobilizing conference services and documentation in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible;

Also recalls section II.A, paragraph 16, of its resolution 66/233, and in this respect concurs with the observations in paragraph 13 of the report of the Secretary-General on the pattern of conferences regarding the biennial calendar of meetings of the Economic and Social Council;Error: Reference source not found

II.A.Utilization of conference-servicing resources

Reaffirms the practice that, in the use of conference rooms, priority must be given to meetings of Member States;

Calls upon the Secretary-General and Member States to adhere to the guidelines and procedures contained in the administrative instruction for the authorization of the use of United Nations premises for meetings, conferences, special events and exhibits;⁶

⁶ST/AI/416.

Emphasizes that such meetings, conferences, special events and exhibits must be consistent with the purposes and principles of the United Nations;

Notes that the overall utilization factor at the four main duty stations in 2011 was 85 per cent, as in 2010, and 86 per cent in 2009, which is above the established benchmark of 80 per cent;

Welcomes the steps taken by those bodies that have adjusted their programmes of work in order to achieve the optimum utilization of conference-servicing resources, and requests the Committee on Conferences to intensify consultations with the secretariats and bureaux of bodies that underutilize their conference-servicing resources;

Recognizes that late starts and unplanned early endings seriously affect the utilization factor of the bodies owing to the amount of time lost, and invites the secretariats and bureaux of bodies to pay adequate attention to avoiding late starts and unplanned early endings;

Notes that the percentage of meetings held by the bodies entitled to meet “as required” that were provided with interpretation services in New York in 2011 was 96 per cent, as compared with 94 per cent in 2010, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to impress upon such bodies the need to strive to optimize the utilization of the conference services provided and to report on the provision of conference services to those bodies through the Committee on Conferences;

Reiterates its request to intergovernmental bodies to review their meeting entitlements and to plan and adjust their programmes of work on the basis of their actual utilization of conference-servicing resources in order to improve their efficient use of conference services;

Recognizes the importance of meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States for the smooth functioning of the sessions of intergovernmental bodies, requests the Secretary-General to ensure that, as far as possible, all requests for conference services for the meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States are met, and requests the Secretariat to inform the requesters as early as possible about the availability of conference services, including interpretation, as well as about any changes that might occur before the holding of meetings;

Notes that the percentage of meetings held by regional and other major groupings of Member States that were provided with interpretation services at the four main duty stations was 91 per cent in 2011, as compared with 84 per cent in 2010, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to employ innovative means to address the difficulties experienced by Member States owing to the lack of conference services for some meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States and to report thereon to the General Assembly through the Committee on Conferences;

Once again urges intergovernmental bodies to spare no effort at the planning stage to take into account the meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States, to make provision for such meetings in their programmes of work and to notify 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 Member States;

Welcomes the efforts of all users of conference services to inform the Secretariat as early as possible of any cancellation of service requests so as to allow for such services to be smoothly redeployed to other meetings;

Notes with satisfaction that, in accordance with several resolutions of the General Assembly, including resolution 66/233, section II.A, paragraph 12, in conformity with the headquarters rule, all meetings of Nairobi-based United Nations bodies were held in Nairobi in 2011, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the Assembly at its sixty-eighth session through the Committee on Conferences;

Notes with concern the recurring underutilization of the conference centre of the Economic Commission for Africa, and recognizes the ongoing promotional efforts and initiatives of the Commission;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to explore additional means to increase the utilization of the conference centre of the Economic Commission for Africa, including with its partners such as the African Union, and to report thereon, including on the impact of the initiatives of the Commission, to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session;

Also requests the Secretary-General to encourage the heads of entities of the United Nations system to use as a matter of priority, when applicable, the conference centre of the Economic Commission for Africa to ensure greater utilization of the conference facilities;

Further requests the Secretary-General to formulate a more competitive pricing structure and an appropriate marketing strategy for the conference centre of the Economic Commission for Africa;

Recognizes the proactive efforts of the Secretary-General to identify ways to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in conference services;

Requests the Secretary-General to propose, at its sixty-eighth session, a comprehensive review of conference servicing, highlighting any duplication or redundancy, with a view to identifying innovative ideas, potential synergies and other cost-saving measures, without compromising the quality of the services;

Reiterates its request to the Committee on Conferences that it consult those bodies that have consistently utilized less than the applicable benchmark of their allocated resources for the past three years, with a view to making appropriate recommendations in order to achieve the optimum utilization of conference-servicing resources, and urges the secretariats and bureaux of bodies that underutilize their conference-servicing resources to work more closely with the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management of the Secretariat and to consider changes to their programmes of work, as appropriate, including adjustments based on previous patterns of recurring agenda items, with a view to making improvements in their utilization factors;

Requests the Chair of the Committee on Conferences to address a letter to the presiding officers of intergovernmental bodies based at duty stations other than New York if their utilization factor falls below the benchmark of 80 per cent;

Urges those intergovernmental bodies whose average utilization factor has for the past 10 years been below the benchmark of 80 per cent to take that factor into account when planning their future sessions in order to achieve that benchmark;

B.Impact of the capital master plan, strategy IV (phased approach), on meetings held at Headquarters during its implementation

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the implementation of the capital master plan, including the reassignment of conference-servicing staff to swing spaces, will not compromise the quality of conference services provided to Member States in the six official languages and the equal treatment of the language services, which should be provided with equally favourable working conditions and resources, with a view to receiving the maximum quality of services;

Requests all meeting requesters and organizers to liaise closely with the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management on all matters related to the scheduling of meetings to allow maximum predictability in coordinating activities at Headquarters during the construction period;

Requests the Committee on Conferences to keep the matter under constant review, and requests the Secretary-General to report regularly to the Committee on matters pertaining to the calendar of conferences and meetings of the United Nations during the construction period;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide adequate information technology support for conference services, within the existing resources of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, in order to ensure their seamless operation throughout the implementation of the capital master plan;

Notes that, for the duration of the implementation of the capital master plan, a part of the conference-servicing staff and information technology resources of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management has been temporarily relocated to swing spaces, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide adequate support, within the existing resources of the Department, to ensure continued maintenance of the information technology facilities of the Department, implementation of the global information technology initiative and delivery of high-quality conference services;

Requests the Secretary-General to consult Member States on initiatives that affect the utilization of conference services and conference facilities;

III.Integrated global management

Notes with appreciation the efforts of the Secretary-General in the context of the integrated global management initiative to establish and implement in the four main duty stations common performance indicators and single information technology systems (such as gData, gMeets, gDoc and gText), and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session;

Recalls section III, paragraph 15, of its resolution 66/233, requests the Secretary-General to complete the internal reviews concerning accountability mechanisms and the clear delineation of responsibility between the Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management and the Directors General of the United Nations Offices at Geneva, Nairobi and Vienna for conference management policies, operations and resource utilization, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session;

Notes the initiatives undertaken in the context of integrated global management aimed at streamlining procedures, achieving economies of scale and improving the quality of conference services, and in this regard stresses the importance of ensuring equal treatment of conference-servicing staff, as well as the principle of equal grade for equal work at the four main duty stations;

Also notes that the effects of workload-sharing in the context of global document management remain minimal, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to seek ways to promote workload-sharing among the four main duty stations and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session;

Emphasizes that the major goals of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management are to provide high-quality documents in a timely manner in all official languages, in accordance with established regulations, as well as high-quality conference services to Member States at all duty stations, and to achieve those aims as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly;

Notes that the pool of language professionals at duty stations is uneven in terms of language combinations, and requests the Secretary-General to develop recruitment, subcontracting and outreach policies that take full account of these imbalances and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all language services are given equal treatment and are provided with equally favourable working conditions and resources, with a view to achieving the maximum quality of services, with full respect for the specificities of the six official languages and taking into account their respective workloads;

Reiterates the need for the Secretary-General to ensure the compatibility of technologies used in all duty stations and to ensure that they are user-friendly in all official languages;

Also reiterates that the satisfaction of Member States is a key performance indicator in conference management and conference services;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to ensure that measures taken by the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management to seek the evaluation by Member States of the quality of the conference services provided to them, as a key performance indicator of the Department, provide equal opportunities to Member States to present their evaluations in the six official languages of the United Nations and are in full compliance with relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, and requests the Secretary-General to report to the Assembly, through the Committee on Conferences, on progress made in this regard;

Also requests the Secretary-General to continue to explore best practices and techniques in client satisfaction evaluations and to report regularly to the General Assembly on the results achieved;

Welcomes the efforts made by the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management to seek the evaluation by Member States of the quality of the conference services provided to them, taking into consideration also comments and complaints raised by Member States either in writing or during meetings, and requests the Secretary-General to intensify his exploration of innovative ways to systematically capture and analyse feedback from Member States and Chairs and Secretaries of committees on the quality of conference services and to report thereon to the General Assembly through the Committee on Conferences;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to seek evaluation by Member States of the quality of the conference services provided to them, including through the language-specific informational meetings held once a year, ahead of the substantive session of the Committee on Conferences, or any necessary meeting scheduled upon the request of Member States, not to exceed two meetings per year, and to ensure that such measures provide equal opportunities to Member States to present their evaluations in the six official languages of the United Nations and that they are in full compliance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly;

Also requests the Secretary-General to keep the General Assembly apprised of progress made in integrated global management;

Notes with concern that the Secretary-General did not include in his report on the pattern of conferencesError: Reference source not found information about the financial savings achieved through the implementation of the integrated global management projects, as requested in section III, paragraph 4, of its resolution 63/248, in section III, paragraph 12, of its resolution 64/230, in section III, paragraph 14, of its resolution 65/245 and in section III, paragraph 14, of its resolution 66/233, and reiterates its request that the Secretary-General redouble his efforts to include this information in his next report on the pattern of conferences;

Notes the Flextime pilot project initiated by the United Nations Office at Vienna, stresses that the rules and regulations of the United Nations governing human resources issues should be applied uniformly during the implementation of the pilot project, and requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session on the evaluation of the pilot project, including a recommendation on whether the project should be continued at the United Nations Office at Vienna and further implemented at other duty stations;

Welcomes the proximity rule as an efficient approach, where feasible, to servicing meetings away from duty stations, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to rigorously apply the proximity rule to applicable meetings without jeopardizing the quality of services and to report thereon to the Committee on Conferences at its substantive session in 2013;

IV.Matters related to documentation and publications

Emphasizes the paramount importance of the equality of the six official languages of the United Nations;

Reaffirms its decision in section IV of its resolution 64/230 that all reports adopted by the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council shall be issued as documents in all official languages of the United Nations in a timely manner before their consideration by the Council, in accordance with General Assembly resolutions 36/117 A of 10 December 1981, 51/211 A to E, 52/214, 53/208 A to E and 59/265, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure the support necessary to that effect and to report to the General Assembly thereon at its sixty-eighth session;

Reiterates with concern its request that the Secretary-General ensure that the rules concerning the simultaneous distribution of documents in all six official languages are strictly respected as regards both the distribution of printed copies and the posting of parliamentary documentation on the Official Document System and the United Nations website, in keeping with section III, paragraph 5, of its resolution 55/222;

Stresses that matters related to conference management, including documentation, fall within the purview of the Fifth Committee;

Reiterates the importance of the timely issuance of documents for the Fifth Committee;

Acknowledges that a multipronged approach is required to find a solution to the perennial difficulties of the late issuance of documents for the Fifth Committee;

Recognizes the work done by the interdepartmental task force on documentation chaired by the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management in positively addressing the problem of issuance of documents for the Fifth Committee;

Encourages the Chairs of the Fifth Committee and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions to continue to promote cooperation between the two bodies in the sphere of documentation;

Welcomes the continued efforts of the task force to shepherd the submission of documents by the author departments of the Secretariat;

Notes that accurate, timely and consistent information provided by the Secretariat to the Fifth Committee during its informal consultations facilitates the decision-making process in the Committee;

Notes with satisfaction that all documents submitted on time and within the word limit were processed by the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management within four weeks, and encourages the Secretary-General to sustain that level of performance;

Reaffirms its decision in section III, paragraph 9, of its resolution 59/265 that the issuance of documents in all six official languages on planning, budgetary and administrative matters requiring urgent consideration by the General Assembly shall be accorded priority;

Reiterates its request that the Secretary-General direct all departments of the Secretariat to include the following elements in their reports:

A summary of the report;

Consolidated conclusions, recommendations and other proposed actions;

Relevant background information;

Also reiterates its request that all documents submitted to legislative organs by the Secretariat and intergovernmental and expert bodies for consideration and action have conclusions and recommendations in bold print;

Notes with concern that only 65 per cent of the author departments reached the compliance rate of 90 per cent in the timely submission of their reports to the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, and requests the Secretary-General to enforce the slotting system more rigorously through a dedicated focus, such as the interdepartmental task force on documentation, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session;

Urges author departments to fully adhere to deadlines in meeting the goal of 90 per cent submission compliance, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that documents submitted late do not adversely affect the issuance of documents submitted on time and in compliance with set guidelines;

Reiterates its request in section IV, paragraph 18, of its resolution 66/233 that the Secretary-General provide information on the waiver process for documents that are submitted over the word limit;

Welcomes the interactions between the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management and the author departments on waiver management, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure continuous efforts in this regard and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session;

Emphasizes the role of Member States and their intergovernmental bodies in determining the policies of conference management;

Stresses that proposals to change such policies are to be approved by Member States in their relevant intergovernmental bodies;

Recalls paragraphs 23 and 24 of the annex to its resolution 55/285 of 7 September 2001 and section IV, paragraph 23, of its resolution 66/233, and requests the Secretary-General to elaborate the scope of the paper-smart concept so that it becomes a more comprehensive concept based on the use of modern technology in order to better serve Member States, bearing in mind the principle of language parity among the six official languages of the United Nations, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session, including detailed information on:

Technological benchmarks, including but not limited to data security and services provided to Member States;

Implications for financial and human resources and budgetary and procurement procedures;

Implementation time frames at the four main duty stations;

Integration of the related information and communications technology projects with Umoja;

Business continuity plans;

Possible training needs;

Availability of the paper-smart portal;

Accessibility for persons with disabilities;

Notes that the Official Document System is the official digital repository of the United Nations;

Requests the Secretary-General to complete the task of uploading all important older United Nations documents onto the United Nations website in all six official languages on a priority basis so that these archives will also be available to Member States through that medium;

Also requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session on a detailed time frame for the digitization of all important older United Nations documents, including parliamentary documents, and on options for expediting this process within existing resources;

Notes the pilot project undertaken by the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space at the United Nations Office at Vienna to make a transition to digital recordings of meetings in the six official languages of the Organization as a cost-saving measure;

Emphasizes that the further expansion of this measure would require consideration, including of its legal, financial and human resources implications, by the General Assembly and full compliance with the relevant resolutions of the Assembly, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon and on the evaluation of the pilot project mentioned above to the Assembly at its sixty-eighth session;

Recalls paragraph 5 of its resolution 49/221 B of 23 December 1994, and stresses that the timely issuance of verbatim records constitutes an important part of the services provided to Member States;

V.Matters related to translation and interpretation

Requests the Secretary-General to redouble his efforts to ensure the highest quality of interpretation and translation services in all six official languages;

Reiterates its request that the Secretary-General ensure that the terminology used in the translation and interpretation services reflects the latest linguistic norms and terminology of the official languages in order to ensure the highest quality;

Reaffirms section V, paragraph 4, of its resolution 66/233, and reiterates its request that the Secretary-General, when recruiting temporary assistance in the language services, including through the use of international or local contracts, as appropriate, ensure that all language services are given equal treatment and are provided with equally favourable working conditions and resources, with a view to achieving maximum quality of their services, with full respect for the specificities of each of the six official languages and taking into account their respective workloads;

Reiterates its request that the Secretary-General consider further measures aimed at decreasing the vacancy rates at the United Nations Office at Nairobi, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session;

Requests the Secretary-General to hold competitive examinations for the recruitment of language staff sufficiently in advance in order to fill current and future vacancies in the language services in a timely manner and to inform the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session of efforts in this regard;

Also requests the Secretary-General to continue to improve the quality of translation of documents into the six official languages, giving particular significance to the accuracy of translation;

Reiterates paragraph 8 of the annex to resolution 2 (I) of 1 February 1946 on the rules of procedure concerning languages, whereby all resolutions and other important documents shall be made available in the official languages and, upon the request of any representative, any other document shall be made available in any or all of the official languages;

Stresses the need to ensure the highest possible quality of contractual translation, and requests the Secretary-General to report on measures to be taken in this regard;

Reiterates its request that the Secretary-General provide, at all duty stations, adequate staff at the appropriate level, with a view to ensuring appropriate quality control for external translation, with due consideration of the principle of equal grade for equal work;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session on the experience, lessons learned and best practices of the main duty stations in performing quality control of contractual translations, including on requirements relating to the number and appropriate level of staff needed to carry out this function;

Encourages the Secretary-General to establish globally standardized performance indicators and costing models aimed at a more cost-effective strategy for the in-house processing of documents, and requests the Secretary-General to submit such information to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session;

Notes with appreciation the measures taken by the Secretary-General, in accordance with its resolutions, to address, among other things, the issue of the replacement of retiring staff in the language services, and requests the Secretary-General to maintain and intensify those efforts, including the strengthening of cooperation with institutions that train language specialists, in order to meet the needs in the six official languages of the United Nations;

Notes the need for energetic measures to avoid a disruptive shortage of applicants and a high turnover rate in the language career fields, and requests the Secretary-General to use the appropriate means to improve the internship programme, including through partnerships with organizations that promote the official languages of the United Nations;

Also notes, in this regard, that recent efforts have led to the signing of memorandums of understanding and collaboration agreements with two universities in Africa and that a memorandum of understanding has been signed with a Latin American institution;

Requests the Secretary-General to make further concerted efforts to promote outreach programmes, such as traineeships and internships, and to introduce innovative methods to increase awareness of the programmes, including through partnerships with Member States, relevant international organizations and language institutions in all regions, in particular to close the wide gap in Africa and Latin America, and to report to the General Assembly thereon at its sixty-eighth session;

Requests the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, in cooperation with the Office of Human Resources Management, to continue to increase its efforts to raise awareness among all Member States about opportunities for employment and internships in the language services at the four main duty stations;

Notes with appreciation the positive experience with traineeships at Headquarters and at the United Nations Office at Vienna in training young professionals in and attracting them to the translation and interpretation services of the United Nations, while enhancing the pool of qualified language professionals in language combinations that are critical for succession-planning purposes, and requests the Secretary-General to develop the initiative further, to extend it to all duty stations and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session;

Notes that the consolidated lists of individuals and entities subject to sanctions, according to the sanctions committees of the Security Council, have not yet been translated into all six official languages, reiterates its recommendation that the Informal Working Group on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions of the Security Council look further into the practices related to the issuance of these consolidated lists, including their translation, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon at its sixty-eighth session.