Access to the Palais des Nations
Support
Participants of an international conference with limited financial means for accommodation in Geneva can request support to facilitate their stay. The Centre d'acceuil de la Genève internationale (CAGI) provides assistance when certain conditions regarding the type of conference and the representation of the participant are met.
Please contact the meeting organizers regarding an invitation letter for the event which will be the justification for your visa application. Their contact details can be found on the Indico.UN event page.
UN Geneva advises meeting organizers to include information on accessibility services on their Indico.UN event page. Participants may be asked about disabilities and related needs during the registration process. This is necessary to grant additional support such as
- Registration of a support person
- Registration of a guide dog
- Priority access and security check
- Reservation of a wheelchair
- Reservation of a parking space
- etc.
If you have any questions or accessibility needs that have not been covered in the registration, please contact the meeting organizer. Additional information about accessible routes and facilities at the Palais des Nations can be found on our dedicated page on accessibility.
Active participation
The speakers list is set up by the meeting organizers before the event, taking into account requirements of the meeting and the organizations' mandate. In certain cases, participants can indicate their willingness to speak during the registration in Indico.UN. If in doubt, please reach out to the meeting organizers directly should you wish to speak.
If you or a representative of your entity have been invited to send a video message to the event, please consider the following guidelines:
- Make sure you are visible in the frame from at least the shoulders up. Your facial expressions will look better during broadcasting and will also facilitate interpretation.
- Please speak at a moderate pace (100 to a maximum of 120 words per minute).
- If the meeting is broadcast, it is essential to have good quality video. The resolution should be 1920 x 1080 interlaced, frequency 50Hz, and aspect ratio 16:9.
- Ideally use a video camera, if available. If you do not have access to a video camera or other high quality audio-visual equipment, use a desktop or laptop computer with an external unidirectional microphone to record your message, not a tablet or smartphone. Videos taken on tablets or smartphones will not provide adequate sound or image.
- Do not record directly onto the platform. Videos recorded on the meeting platform will be of poor quality and may be unintelligible for participants and interpreters.
- Use a USB-connected unidirectional desktop microphone, such as a Razer Seiren Mini, a Røde NTUSB Mini or equivalent. The best microphones are unidirectional microphones because they pick up the sound coming directly from in front of them and are less sensitive to the sound coming from the sides or the back – a pattern known as cardioid.
- Avoid using the integrated microphone of your computer or your camera.
- Choose a quiet, well-lit location, ideally a small room where there is no echo or reverberation, with doors and windows closed, air conditioning and/or fans switched off and no people or pets in the room with you.
- Before starting, silence your computer’s loudspeakers and other electronic equipment in the room, including the notifications features on your phone, computer and/or tablet. Notification sounds will distract listeners from your message.
- Adequate lighting is important and makes a big difference in the final product. Ideally use natural light sources and avoid backlighting.
- After recording, please review your message to check the audio and video quality. If the sound and/or visuals are not clear, please re-record it. Messages with poor audio quality may be unintelligible for participants and interpreters.
- Send the written statement to speeches@un.org.
- Do not accelerate the recording or edit it to cut out pauses as this will render your message unintelligible.
- Label the video clearly with the title, date and time of the meeting at which it is to be shown, together with the name of the delegation/participant.
- Use MP4 format or any format readable by VLC or Media Player.
Please send the video file to the meeting organizer who will share it with the technician responsible for the meeting.
Meeting Resources
Meeting organizers can upload documents (e.g. meeting schedules, statements, practical information etc.) directly on the Indico.UN event page. After registration, browse through the event page to find useful information as well as preparatory documents for the meeting.
The UN Geneva library prepares "conference primers"- a collection of news, official documents, important links and other resources ahead of major meetings on selected topics.
UN Geneva is responsible for the distribution of official UN documents and publications, maintaining stocks of documents and providing quality, timely, efficient, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable document-related services. Documents are distributed according to the needs of meetings/conferences, substantive offices, permanent missions, official address/mailing lists and individual clients.
If you are attending a meeting and would like to have all the publicly available documents related to that meeting, please visit one of our distribution counters. If you are interested in researching or printing a document from the Official Document System, please visit the main distribution counter located at Door 40.
Helpdesk for Delegates & Print-on-Demand
Monday to Friday: 08.30 a.m. – 12.30 pm & 1.30 – 5.30 p.m.
Main counter
E Building / Door 40
Contact: +41 (0)22 917 49 00 & distribution-counters@un.org