Pattern of Conferences

A/RES/74/252View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 138 Pattern of conferences, published in 2020.

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 · 2020

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2020	A/75/89	Pattern of conferences report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/74/252

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 subjects

Calendar of Meetings Conference and Meeting Services Conference Facilities Documents Interpreting Language Services Publications Translation

What’s in this document?

125 operative paragraphs

ICalendar of conferences and meetings

Welcomes the report of the Committee on Conferences for 2019;1

Approves the draft calendar of conferences and meetings of the United Nations for 2020, as submitted by the Committee on Conferences,⁴ taking into account the observations of the Committee and subject to the provisions of the present resolution;

⁴See Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-fourth Session, Supplement No. 32 (A/74/32), annex II.

Authorizes the Committee on Conferences to make any adjustments to the revised calendar of conferences and meetings of the United Nations for 2020 that may become necessary as a result of actions and decisions taken by the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session;

Recalls paragraph 40 of its resolution 71/323 of 8 September 2017 and paragraph 40 of its resolution 72/313 of 17 September 2018 on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly;

Notes with satisfaction that the Secretariat has taken into account the arrangements referred to in General Assembly resolutions on the pattern of conferences, including resolutions 53/208 A of 18 December 1998, 54/248 of 23 December 1999, 55/222 of 23 December 2000, 56/242 of 24 December 2001, 57/283 B of 15 April 2003, 58/250 of 23 December 2003, 59/265 of 23 December 2004, 60/236 A of 23 December 2005, 61/236 of 22 December 2006, 62/225 of 22 December 2007, 63/248 of 24 December 2008, 64/230 of 22 December 2009, 65/245 of 24 December 2010, 66/233 of 24 December 2011, 67/237 of 24 December 2012, 68/251 of 27 December 2013, 72/19 of 1 December 2017 and 73/270, 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;

Also notes with satisfaction that the Secretariat has taken into account the arrangements referred to in relevant resolutions of the General Assembly regarding the pattern of conferences, including resolution 69/250 of 29 December 2014, concerning Yom Kippur, the Day of Vesak, Diwali, Gurpurab, Orthodox Christmas and Nowruz, and requests all relevant intergovernmental bodies to continue to observe the applicable decisions when planning their meetings;

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

Reaffirms the need to address the issue of duplications and redundancies in conference servicing, and notes Economic and Social Council resolution 2018/30 of 24 July 2018;

Expresses concern regarding the recurring extension of the work of the Fifth Committee during the second part of the resumed session of the General Assembly and the impact of such an extension on the services provided by the Secretariat, including the availability of conference rooms and language services;

IIUtilization 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;⁵

⁵ST/AI/416.

Notes that ST/AI/416 of 26 April 1996, which regulates the use of United Nations premises, has been updated and superseded at Headquarters in New York by ST/AI/2019/4 of 23 September 2019, and encourages the Directors-General of other conference-servicing duty stations to review and update as necessary their information circulars governing the use of United Nations premises;

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 interpretation utilization factor for all calendar bodies at the four main duty stations was 82 per cent in 2018, 81 per cent in 2017 and 80 per cent in 2016, 2015 and 2014, which met the established benchmark of 80 per cent;

Urges those intergovernmental bodies whose average interpretation utilization factor has for the past six 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;

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 and to achieve optimum utilization of conference services;

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 interpretation utilization factors;

Recognizes that late starts and unplanned early endings seriously affect the interpretation utilization factor of those bodies, invites the secretariats and bureaux of the bodies to pay adequate attention in this regard, and welcomes their efforts to inform the Secretariat in a timely manner of any such changes in order to allow conference services to be smoothly redeployed to other meetings;

Requests the Committee on Conferences to consult those bodies that have consistently utilized less than the applicable benchmark of their allocated resources for the past six years, with a view to making appropriate recommendations in order to achieve the optimum utilization of conference-servicing resources;

Welcomes the efforts undertaken by the Secretary-General to increase the utilization of conference-servicing resources, and in this regard encourages the Secretary-General to enhance the efficiency of conference servicing and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

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

Also requests the Secretary-General to continue to impress upon bodies entitled to meet “as required” the need to further improve the utilization of conference services, and further requests the Secretary-General to report on the provision of such services to those bodies to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

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 Department for General Assembly and Conference Management 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 the overall increase in 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 in 2018, and requests the Secretary-General to further employ innovative means to address the difficulties arising from the lack of interpretation services for such meetings and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

Once again urges intergovernmental bodies 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 the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, 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;

Recognizes the improvement in the rate of room utilization of the conference centre of the Economic Commission for Africa and the ongoing efforts aimed at improving the conference facilities at the Commission;

Looks forward to receiving the proposal aimed at addressing the deteriorating conditions and the limited capacity of the conference services facility at the United Nations Office at Nairobi;

Recognizes the proactive efforts of the Secretary-General to identify ways to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in conference services, commends the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management for its innovative approaches in providing technical secretariat support and in managing meetings and documents, and encourages the Department to continue its efforts to preserve the high quality of its services while achieving efficiencies;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts aimed at improving conference servicing at the four main duty stations, including by addressing or eliminating possible duplication, overlap and redundancy, and identifying innovative ideas, potential synergies and other cost-saving measures, without compromising quality or affecting the provision of services, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

Reiterates the need to continue to improve all conference facilities, including the videoconferencing infrastructure, at all four main duty stations, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to report thereon no later than at the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly;

Welcomes the measures taken to ensure access to and use of conference services and conference facilities for persons with disabilities, including the establishment of the Accessibility Centre, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to address issues related to the accessibility of conference facilities in all four main conference-servicing duty stations as a matter of priority and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

Also welcomes the integrated global management rule as an efficient approach, where feasible, to servicing meetings away from duty stations, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to realize further efficiencies by rigorously applying the integrated global management rule to applicable meetings, without jeopardizing the quality of services, and to continue to report thereon to the Committee on Conferences;

IIIEnhancing integrated global management, leveraging technology and measuring the quality of conference services

Recalls paragraph 24 of the report of the Secretary-General on the pattern of conferences⁶ also recalls that, in paragraph 81 of its resolution 56/253 of 24 December 2001, it requested the Secretary-General to ensure that conference services were managed in an integrated manner throughout all duty stations in the Organization, stresses again that the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management is responsible for the implementation of policy, the formulation of standards and guidelines, overseeing and coordinating United Nations conference services and the overall management of resources under the relevant budget section, while the United Nations Offices at Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi remain responsible and accountable for day-to-day operational activities, as indicated in section II.B, paragraph 7, of its resolution 57/283 B;

⁶A/70/122.

Notes the completion of 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, requests the Secretary-General to report on the outcome of the internal reviews to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session, and in this regard recalls, inter alia, paragraph 36 of its resolution 73/270;

Welcomes the innovative efforts of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management to improve conference services with a view to facilitating the decision-making process by intergovernmental bodies, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to explore technological and other innovations that advance effectiveness and efficiency in this regard and to report on these efforts during the seventy-fifth session;

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

Acknowledges that the concept of integrated global management has been fully mainstreamed into all areas of conference services across the four main conference-servicing duty stations, and requests the Secretary-General to keep the General Assembly and the Committee on Conferences apprised of progress made in ensuring integrated global management and to provide accurate and up-to-date information on new initiatives falling under the purview of the Committee;

Notes with appreciation the progress made in the development and implementation of conference management software such as gData, gDoc, gMeets and gText, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that they are implemented as enterprise systems in the context of the Secretariat-wide information and communications technology strategy, as welcomed by the General Assembly in its resolution 69/262 of 29 December 2014, and to report on progress made regarding operations, maintenance and harmonization with existing systems, as appropriate;

Underlines that all the initiatives on leveraging technology, including those introduced on a trial basis, shall comply with the principle of parity among the official languages of the Organization, with a view to preserving and enhancing the quality and scope of the services provided by the Secretariat;

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 also 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, to seek a larger rate of response to surveys on quality 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 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 at its seventy-fifth session;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to seek evaluation of the quality of the conference services provided by the Secretariat through meetings held at least once a year, but not exceeding twice a year, guaranteeing that Member States are able to present their evaluations and seek information equally in any of the six official languages of the United Nations on any conference-related or language-specific matter;

IVMatters related to documentation and publications

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

Underlines that all the initiatives on the evolution of working methods, including those introduced on a trial basis, shall comply with the principle of parity among the official languages of the Organization, with a view to preserving or enhancing the quality and scope of the services provided by the Secretariat;

Emphasizes the importance of multilingualism in the activities of the United Nations, and requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to ensure full parity among the six official languages in accordance with General Assembly resolution 73/346 and to report thereon to the Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

Also emphasizes the importance of making use of all the official languages of the United Nations, ensuring their full and equitable treatment in all the activities of the Department of Global Communications of the Secretariat, with the aim of eliminating the disparity between the use of English and the use of the five other official languages, and in this regard reaffirms its request that the Secretary-General ensure the archiving of official meetings webcasts in all six official languages on the United Nations website;

Welcomes the appointment by the Secretary-General of the Coordinator for Multilingualism, who is responsible for the overall implementation of multilingualism Secretariat-wide, and calls upon all departments and offices within the Secretariat to fully support the work of the Coordinator in the implementation of the relevant mandates on multilingualism;

Emphasizes that multilingualism, as a core value of the Organization, entails the active involvement and commitment of all stakeholders, including all United Nations duty stations and offices away from Headquarters;

Welcomes the submission by the Secretary-General, in his report on multilingualism,⁷ of detailed terms of reference for the Coordinator for Multilingualism, as requested in resolution 70/9 of 13 November 2015, recalls its endorsement, in resolution 71/328 of 11 September 2017, of the terms of reference proposed by the Secretary-General, requests that subsequent updates to the terms of reference be made available to all Member States and Secretariat entities, and welcomes the efforts made by the Coordinator in this regard;

⁷A/71/757.

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure the consistent and effective implementation of the terms of reference for the Coordinator for Multilingualism and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

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

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

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

Reiterates the importance of the timely submission and issuance of documents for all intergovernmental bodies, including the Fifth Committee;

Notes with concern the recurring late issuance of documents for the Fifth Committee, recalls paragraph 29 of its resolution 70/247 of 23 December 2015, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to take actions for its effective implementation, taking into account the responsibilities of all stakeholders involved, and to report thereon in the context of his next report on the pattern of conferences;

Welcomes the efforts made by the Secretariat, in particular the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, regarding the timely issuance of pre-session documentation for the Fifth Committee in the six official languages of the United Nations, and encourages continued efforts by all stakeholders in this regard;

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;

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;

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 of 18 December 1996, 52/214 of 22 December 1997, 53/208 A to E of 18 December 1998 and 59/265, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure the support necessary to that effect and to report thereon to the Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

Reiterates paragraph 8 of the annex to its 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 all six official languages and, upon the request of any representative, any other document shall be made available in any or all of the official languages;

Also reiterates the importance of the simultaneous issuance of documents in all official languages and welcomes the 100 per cent compliance in 2018 with the issuance of documents by all duty stations, and reiterates its request that the Secretary-General ensure strict respect for the rules concerning the simultaneous issuance of documents in all six official languages as regards both the distribution of printed copies and the posting of parliamentary documentation on the Official Document System and the United Nations website;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to take action on providing the timely and simultaneous issuance of documents in all six official languages;

Notes that workload-sharing has expanded to include text-processing in addition to translation and editing, 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 seventy-fifth 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 headquarters duty stations, and to achieve those aims as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly;

Also emphasizes the importance of enhancing accountability within the Secretariat for the timely submission and issuance of documents;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to include in the senior managers’ compacts the new standard managerial indicator related to the timely submission of official documentation for intergovernmental and expert bodies and to report thereon in future progress reports on accountability;

Also requests the Secretary-General to include, in future budget proposals, information related to the timely submission of documentation needed for meetings of relevant intergovernmental and expert bodies;

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;

and its request that all documents submitted to legislative organs, including the Committee on Conferences, by the Secretariat and intergovernmental and expert bodies for consideration and action have conclusions and recommendations in bold print;

Notes with concern that only 76 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, reiterates its request to 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 seventy-fifth session, urges author departments to fully adhere to deadlines for document submission, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to report on concrete measures taken;

Notes with appreciation the work of the interdepartmental task force on documentation, chaired by the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, to facilitate the submission of documents by author departments of the Secretariat;

Reiterates its request in paragraph 77 of its resolution 73/270 that the Secretary-General provide information on the waiver process for documents that are submitted over the word limit;

Notes that the Official Document System is the official digital repository of the United Nations, welcomes its modernization, including the introduction of a portable Official Document System, and its accessibility in all six official languages of the United Nations, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue his efforts in this regard;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to upload all important older United Nations documents on to the United Nations website in all six official languages on a priority basis so that those archives will also be available to Member States and the general public;

Also requests the Secretary-General to take all measures necessary to ensure that the digitization of key documents in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library and in the main duty stations is completed in a timely manner, as appropriate;

Recalls paragraph 82 of its resolution 73/270, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to entrust the Department of Global Communications with presenting a proposal for the digitization of important older United Nations documents stored at the United Nations Headquarters Dag Hammarskjöld Library for consideration by the General Assembly through the Committee on Information no later than at the main part of its seventy-fifth session, outlining, inter alia, the definition of important older United Nations documents, as well as the scope and estimated quantity, cost and time frame;

Expresses concern that the anticipated lengthy digitization project may jeopardize the retention of historical knowledge and information in view of the delicate state and risk of breakage of many of the related documents;

Requests the Secretary-General to seek additional voluntary contributions for the digitization of important older United Nations documents, including by broadening the donor base, and to report thereon in the context of the report requested in paragraph 80 above;

Welcomes with appreciation the additional contribution from the Government of Qatar to support the digitization project;

Recalls paragraph 85 of its resolution 73/270, notes the increased use of digital recordings by other intergovernmental bodies, including the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to report to the General Assembly in this regard;

Stresses that verbatim and summary records remain the only official records of the meetings of United Nations bodies;

Reiterates paragraph 87 of its resolution 73/270 related to the transition to digital recordings of meetings in the six official languages of the Organization as a cost-saving measure;

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;

VMatters related to language services

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

Welcomes the efforts of the Secretary-General to continue to improve the quality of the simultaneous interpretation and translation services provided, and requests the Secretary-General to take action in this regard;

Underlines that the translation of official documents of the Organization must be provided in all required languages and in due time, in full compliance with the rules of procedure of the respective legislative bodies;

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;

Also requests the Secretary-General to continue to 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;

Further requests the Secretary-General to continue to maintain and update the global terminology portal in order to ensure its availability to United Nations staff, Member States and the general public, with a view to achieving harmonization of the terminology used at all United Nations duty stations;

Requests the Secretary-General, as the Chair of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, to continue to invite the heads of participating funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system to consider using official United Nations terminology and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

Notes that the pool of language professionals at duty stations is uneven in terms of language combinations, and requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to develop recruitment, subcontracting and outreach policies that take full account of those imbalances and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth 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;

Also requests the Secretary-General to take measures to ensure equal treatment of all six official languages and equal quality of service for Member States, while fully respecting the specificities of each official language and different levels of benefit from information technology advances for different languages, including by addressing workload inequities arising from staffing structures and specificities of language, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

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;

Welcomes the development of the computer-assisted translation and machine translation system (eLUNa), and requests the Secretary-General to report on updates, including cost-benefit analysis and quality preservation and control, to this system to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

100

Recalls section VII of its resolution 69/274 A of 2 April 2015, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the implementation of flexible workplace strategies and other potential changes in logistical arrangements take into account the needs of language staff in order to continue to ensure that the services provided to Member States meet the highest standard of quality;

101

Reaffirms paragraph 102 of its resolution 73/270, 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;

102

Recalls section IV of its resolution 69/274 A, and requests the Secretary-General to keep the working conditions of interpreters under review;

103

Requests the Secretary-General to fill vacancies in the language services, in particular in the translation services and interpretation services, in a timely manner and in full compliance with relevant provisions of the General Assembly resolutions governing recruitment for language staff, and to report thereon to the Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

104

Also requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts 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 future sessions of efforts in this regard;

105

Further requests the Secretary-General to continue to make every effort to enhance access to competitive examinations for applicants in all regions, including by organizing remote examinations and by bringing, to the extent possible, examination sites closer to their locations in order to allow the greatest number of potentially qualified candidates to participate in them, and to report to the General Assembly at its future sessions on progress made in this regard;

106

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

107

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;

108

Requests the Secretary-General to apply common standards for the quality control of documents processed by external translators in all four duty stations in order to ensure high-quality translations in the six official languages of the United Nations, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its future sessions;

109

Also requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the experience, lessons learned and best practices of the main duty stations in performing quality control of contractual and in-house translations, including on requirements relating to the number and appropriate level of staff needed to carry out this function, are shared among duty stations and regional commissions, as appropriate;

110

Notes that the Secretary-General has established 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 ensure their effective application at the four main duty stations;

111

Notes with appreciation the measures taken by the Secretary-General, in accordance with its resolutions, to address 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;

112

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to improve the internship programme, including through partnerships with organizations that promote the official languages of the United Nations;

113

Welcomes the existing memorandums of understanding between the Organization and 23 universities as a way to strengthen the training of language professionals in order to improve the recruitment of qualified language staff, and requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to assess the appropriate number of memorandums of understanding in order to fulfil the needs of the Organization;

114

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 of qualified candidates from Africa and from the Latin American and Caribbean region, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;

115

Notes with appreciation the positive experience with language traineeships in training young professionals and in attracting them to the United Nations, while enhancing the pool of qualified language professionals in language combinations that are critical for succession-planning purposes, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue his efforts in this regard;

116

Notes that the “African project” has the aim of establishing postgraduate university programmes in translation, conference interpreting and public service interpreting through centres of excellence on the African continent, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to report on the achievements of this project;

117

Also notes the difficulties encountered in identifying and retaining qualified language professionals and the need to replenish the pool of language experts at the main duty stations, particularly New York and Nairobi, in order to prevent further negative impact on the capacity of the Secretariat to provide services in the six official languages of the United Nations;

118

Welcomes the efforts made by the Secretary-General to raise awareness among all Member States and the general public of career opportunities in conference services, including through the increased use of social media;

119

Notes the update provided by the Secretary-General regarding the pilot project related to the outposting to Vienna of translators from the French Translation Service in New York, and requests the Secretary-General to provide to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session further updates on this matter, including on the quality of services, a cost-benefit analysis, information on workload-sharing and lessons learned;

120

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to improve and strengthen his initiatives related to training and replenishing the language capacity of the Organization, including through the outreach programmes, in order to ensure sufficient capacity to address the interpretation and translation requirements of the Organization;

121

Also requests the Secretary-General to continue to liaise with permanent missions to identify outreach opportunities with universities, educational institutions and language learning centres located worldwide in order to ensure the continued availability of high-quality professional language services in the six official languages of the United Nations;

122

Further requests the Secretary-General to continue to improve and expand the list of universities having memorandums of understanding and other collaborative arrangements with the United Nations, ensuring the inclusion of universities, educational institutions and language learning centres located in all geographical regions, whenever possible.

52nd (resumed) plenary meeting 27 December 2019