General Measures

• The purchase of all materials and equipment that are not considered critical for normal operations is suspended.
• All external training suspended, unless considered essential for continuity of critical services.

Safety and Security

Access to Palais des Nations:

• Gate opening hours at the Palais des Nations will remain unchanged. However, due to reduced security staffing levels, access control procedures for both pedestrians and vehicles may take longer, in particular at the Peace Gate (Place des Nations) and Pregny Gate (Avenue de la Paix). The campus will continue to be closed on weekends and UN holidays.
• All visitors and conference participants subject to security screening will be directed to Pregny Gate.
• Priority lanes will no longer be available.

Security coverage and presence:

• Security officers will no longer be systematically assigned to conferences.
• Security coverage for meetings and events will be provided only following a security assessment and, where applicable, subject to cost recovery.
• Interior security posts will be covered during regular working hours only.

Security assistance and incident response:

• Security officers will continue to act as first responders to incidents. Requests for security- related assistance should be addressed to the Security Operations Center.
• Response times may be longer, particularly outside regular working hours. Incidents will be strictly prioritized by the Security Operations Center, with priority given to critical situations.

Building operations

• Buildings will continue to be heated to 20.5°C and in the warmer seasons cooled to 26.0°C.
• Outdoor lighting will continue to be limited to that necessary for security and safety.

• Non-critical maintenance procedures are deferred. Those operations that are absolutely necessary will be limited to regular working hours and greater use will be made of contractual services to handle work that was previously performed in-house. Response times may be reduced, depending on resource availability.

Conference services (under the budget of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management)

• In the area of conference management, no non-post funding has been authorized at this time until the financial situation improves. This lack of non-post funding is severely affecting the Division of Conference Management’s ability to service meetings and process documentation as the in-house capacity alone is not sufficient to meet the full scope of mandated activities, even with the current 10% reduction of workload and the increase of productivity standards recently mandated by the General Assembly. The Division relies on non-post resources to hire specialized freelance and contractual services during peak periods to supplement in-house teams, as well as to deliver services for which internal capacity does not exist, such as international sign language or live captioning. Therefore, the lack of non-post resources will prevent us from fully servicing the currently planned 2026 conference workload. Further adjustments to our services, due to the unavailability of non-post resources, will need to be implemented with immediate effect.

Meetings

• Time slots of standard three-hour duration within official working hours (from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.) for meetings with conference services will be strictly applied (in line with General Assembly resolution 56/242, annex).
• All regular budget organs and bodies with the total annual duration of their sessions of 10 meetings or more should continue to reduce the number of meetings by at least 10% below the 2024 levels and adjust their programmes of work accordingly.
• Mandated meetings have absolute priority. Nevertheless, servicing capacity is significantly restrained and may not suffice to support all mandated activities during peak periods as currently planned.
• Meeting services to regular budget organs and bodies with the utilization rate (entitlement minus cancelled meetings and time lost due to late start and early ending) of 80% or below in 2024 will be capped at the 2024 level.
• Any intergovernmental decision to implement a new mandate within existing budgetary resources will be subject to the availability of adequate cash resources, capacity and the limitations set out above.
• Confirmation and cancellation notices, through MMS/CPCS, for meetings with interpretation services continue to be three weeks to allow for proper planning and efficient management of limited resources. To ensure efficient use of limited resources, late additions may not be accommodated. Late cancellations would result in idling of conference servicing capacity or/and facilities.
• The approved Geneva Calendar of Conferences and Meetings in 2026 has been carefully fine-tuned. Requests for changes to the dates of the calendar sessions will not be considered. This will also apply to intersessional activities that emanate from resolutions. These will need to be scheduled definitively well in advance.
• In-room meeting support will be significantly limited due to minimal in-house staff resources.

Interpretation Services

• Due to the absence of non-post resources, hiring external capacity, i.e. additional interpreters required to cover regular budget meetings in all the mandated official languages will not be possible. This additional capacity is essential to cover all regular budget mandated meetings in the conference calendar. The lack of such resources may not allow the provision of at the full range of interpretation services in all languages. As a result, some meetings may receive no interpretation at all, while others may benefit only from partial coverage in the languages for which internal capacity exists.
• Reliance on internal interpretation resources only will prevent the provision of international sign language.
• Interpretation services are only available for calendar meetings held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Lunchtime service for non-calendar meetings may be provided on a cost-recovery basis subject to the availability of capacity and sufficient advance notice.
• Meetings in the “as required” category will be serviced if internal capacity is available. They will be considered on a case-by-case basis while priority continues to be given to programmed calendar meetings, in close cooperation with the Meeting Management Section.
• Extra-budgetary services will not be impacted by the above-mentioned measures.

Documentation

• All official documentation will be processed exclusively through the Division’s in-house translation capacity, which may result in delays.
• In-session documents will be processed as capacity permits. Timely submitted slotted pre- session documents will be prioritized with the objective of completing them before the start of the respective sessions. Other categories of mandated documents will be handled according to extended timelines that reflect the limited available capacity.
• Official publications can only be accepted for publishing in the original language of submission and their translation will be put on hold.
• The timeline to process draft resolutions may be extended beyond the standard 48 hours up to 72-96 hours. Likewise, 24 hours for submissions on the penultimate day may need to be reconsidered.
• All regular budget entities will need to limit the length of their internally authored reports by 10% against the established maximum wordcount.
• A maximum of 90 percent of the 2024 volume of submissions per regular budget entity may be accepted for processing in 2026. Entities are invited to determine their respective priorities and appropriate methods to stay within the above limit.
• The verbatim records for the Conference on Disarmament will continue to be processed but will incur longer delays.
• Summary records will be processed strictly for mandated meetings within the limits of the existing capacity. Delays in issuance should be expected. Entities are encouraged to prioritize requests for summary records, keeping capacity constraints and potential long delays in mind.
• Timely and simultaneous issuance of parliamentary documentation in the mandated languages, in compliance with the six-week rule (or 4-week rule for certain bodies), will be negatively impacted. Notwithstanding, every effort will be made to have documents issued before the respective meeting.
• Agreed word counts will continue to be strictly enforced.

Accessibility

• The Division of Conference Management has no internal capacity to deliver accessibility services, such as International Sign language and captioning pending receipt of non-post resources. As a result, mandated accessibility services for the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Human Rights Council cannot be provided until further notice.
   

Side events and special events

• Side events and special events may take place only during regular working hours, unless Organizers cover the extra costs incurred for events taking place outside of working hours.
• Lunchtime events in conference rooms may be accommodated only on a fully self-service basis and in automatic sound mode. UNOG staff will not be available to provide technical or other assistance. No layout or technical changes to the conference rooms are allowed.
• Events that are not part of the intergovernmental process, such as cultural activities, commemorating international days, etc., will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and will require full cost-recovery.