Fifth Committee, 4th plenary meeting - General Assembly, 81st session General Assembly Date: 12 October 2026 Language: English Transcript: https://transcripts.un.org/en/ga/c5/81/4 Transcripts available through this tool are created by using automatic speech recognition and are not official records nor official documents of the United Nations. Official records and official documents are available on the Official Document System of the United Nations. --- 5th Committee · Chair [0:02]: Good morning, distinguished delegates and your excellencies. Thank you for making it here this morning. And our guests, we also thank you for coming in. I call to order the fourth meeting of the Fifth Committee at the 81st session of the General Assembly. Distinguished colleagues, I invite the committee to begin its consideration of agenda item 141 entitled Pattern of Conferences. In this connection, I invite the chair of the Committee on Conferences for 2026, Mr. Avis, to introduce the report of that committee, continuing document A, slide 81, slide 32. Mr. Harvey, you have the floor. Thank you. Committee on Conferences · Chair [1:11]: Good morning to all. Thank you, Mr. Chair, distinguished delegates. It is my privilege to introduce the report of the Committee on Conferences for 2026 in my capacity as chair of the committee. The Committee's report, as contained in document A/81/32, covers the work of the Committee in 2026 and was adopted at its substantive session held from 8 to 14 September 2026. The report also includes a draft resolution on the pattern of conferences in annex 1 and a draft calendar of conference and meetings of the United Nations for 2027, Annex II, for the Committee's consideration and recommendation for adoption by the General Assembly. Mr. Chair, distinguished delegates, at the opening of the substantive session on 8 September, the Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management introduced the report of the Secretary-General on the pattern of conferences. which the Committee considered together with the statistical data presented as supplementary information. Member States also had the opportunity to hear a briefing on matters related to the work of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management. and engage in a question and answer session with representatives of DGACM in New York and at other three duty stations, Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi, which provided an opportunity to interact on the various substantive issues before the committee. Following informal consultations, the committee adopted the draft resolution on the pattern of conferences before you. which it recommended for adoption by the General Assembly. I am pleased to report that the Committee was able to further streamline the resolution this year, and it also decided that, starting from the 81st session, the Committee on Conferences shall meet on a triennial basis to consider the pattern of conferences and related matters on a trial basis for three years, to be reviewed at the eighty-fourth session, while holding in the intervening years an annual session to review and approve the calendar of conferences and meetings and consider any matters requiring annual or urgent consideration, without prejudice to its consideration of other matters as necessary. Concurrently, the Committee decided to extend the term of office of new Committee members from three years to five years, starting from 1 January 2027. Mr. Chair, distinguished delegates, before I conclude, I would like to thank the Bureau, Hungary, Iran, Brazil and Kenya, and the members of the Committee for their participation during the substantive session. On behalf of the Committee, I would also like to express our gratitude to Mr. Moses Abelian, Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, and Mrs. Charit Norman-Chalé, Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, as well as all the staff of DGACM, particularly Maria and Charlotte, for providing substantive and technical support to the Committee through the year. I thank you, Mr. Chair. 5th Committee · Chair [5:08]: Thank you, Mr. Harvey, for the speech and the statement delivered. Thank you very much. I now invite the Assistant Secretary-General for the General Assembly and Conferences Management, our own Ms. Nomad Charlotte, to introduce the report of the Secretary General on pattern of conferences contained in document A/81/123. The Assistant Secretary General for the General Assembly and Conference Management, you have the floor. Thank you. DGACM · ASG [5:49]: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have the honor to present the Secretary General's report on the pattern of conferences, which as you just said is A/81/123. In 2025, the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management strove to deliver uninterrupted, high-quality, multilingual conference services here in New York, Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi, with the number of meetings held remaining practically unchanged from 2024 at just over 26,500. The overall interpretation utilization rate by intergovernmental and expert bodies also remains stable at 80%. The translation workload decreased by 7.6% from 222 million words in 2024 to 205 million in 2025, due in part to the reduction in the lengths of reports originating from within the Secretariat as part of the liquidity measures. While liquidity constraints and the hiring freeze created capacity challenges and imbalances across the language services, the Department, through proactive engagement with the author departments and meeting organizers, as well as its continued close coordination of capacity across our duty stations, together with technological innovation resulting from the Department's continued strategy of modernization, managed to uphold multilingualism and fulfill most of its mandates. The use of temporary assistance for interpretation during peak periods, for example, was reduced through voluntary cross training and cross assignments of language staff from other operational areas. And all mandated meetings received interpretation services within the constraints outlined. Translation workload sharing across duty stations also increased from about from almost 4 million words in 2024 to almost 6 million in 2025, substantially reducing the Department's reliance and and hence expenditures on external translation capacity as well. At the same time, the productivity of the translation services reached eight pages per day in 2025. compared to with 7.2 in 2024, aided in part by the continued use of AI powered machine translation. As a result, compliance with processing and issuance deadlines remained similar to the levels recorded in 2024. The exception was in the production of summary and verbatim records, which notably was delayed by the necessary prioritization of pre and in session documents. the verbatim record backlog rose from 162 at the end of 2024 to 225 at the end of 2025. That figure would have been considerably higher, however, if it were not for the voluntary retraining of production editors to work on verbatim records and the increase in workload sharing and loans across services. The Department continued to enhance its enterprise systems and tools within available resources and to actively explore possible additional use cases for AI powered solutions with a view to further increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations. The use of speech to text applications, automated transcription and AI assisted documentation workflows and data preparation was further expanded. As always, new technologies are integrated using an expert in the lead approach. with human oversight ensuring the quality, accuracy, and integrity of multilingual services the Department delivers. Our focus, Mr. Chairman, remains the fulfillment of our core mandates, which is delivering high-quality meetings and documentation services in a timely manner and upholding multilingualism through integrated global management, thus ensuring their efficient and effective delivery. Along with the USG and myself, we thank you for your ongoing support. 5th Committee · Chair [10:11]: Thank you very much. Our own Mrs. Charlotte, she was here before and she's on the other side now. And I'm also happy that we have Mr. Avis here, meaning that kind of a joke with them that we had to go together until the reports are fulfilled or we don't go at all. So I want to thank you very much for your speech. The floor is now open for delegation who is to make a statement. And on behalf of the group of 77 and China, our colleagues from Uruguay will make the statement. You have the floor. Uruguay · G77 + China [10:51]: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have the honor to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China on agenda item 141, entitled Pattern of Conferences. The group thanks Mr. Ricardo Alves, Chair of the Committee on Conferences, and Ms. Sherit Norman-Shalit, Assistant Secretary General for General Assembly and Conference Management, for introducing their respective reports. We appreciate the committee's work during its September session and consider its proposed draft resolution a useful basis for our deliberations. We express our deep appreciation to the department's staff for sustaining high quality multilingual conference services despite continued liquidity constraints. Their professionalism and adaptability remain indispensable to the functioning of intergovernmental bodies. Multilingualism is a core value of the United Nations and the equal treatment of all six official languages must be fully upheld. Mr. Chair, the group stressed that efficiency measures, including those pursued under the UN80 initiative, must safeguard the sovereign equality and full, effective, and unhindered participation of all member states. Changes to conference management policies require approval by the relevant intergovernmental bodies. Member states must be consulted on initiatives affecting conference services and facilities, with particular attention to the needs of smaller delegations. We remain concerned about the impact of liquidity constraints on meeting arrangements, recruitment, training, and outreach. The continued delivery of services should not obscure the pressures on staff or the accumulation of documentation backlogs. Adequate resources must be provided to fulfill approved mandates, including the issuance of verbatim and summary records as the only official records of the meetings of the United Nations bodies. The group notes the proposed a trial of triennial consideration of the pattern of conferences while retaining annual sessions for the calendar and other necessary matters. Any adjustment must preserve effective intergovernmental oversight and the committee's ability to address urgent concerns promptly. We attach importance to transparent reporting and the review and research at the 84th session. We welcome continued compliance with the simultaneous issuance of reports in all mandated official languages. However, recurring delays in documentation for the Fifth Committee remain a concern. Author departments must meet submission deadlines and urgent budgetary and administrative documents must receive priority. Timely access to complete documentation in all official languages is essential for delegations to prepare their positions and engage meaningfully in negotiations. The group acknowledges the the efficiencies achieved through workload sharing, integrated global management, and technological innovation. Artificial intelligence must remain subject to adequate human oversight and rigorous quality controls. The expertise of language professionals is irreplaceable. New tools must respect linguistic specificities and parity among official languages, and productivity gains must not compromise accuracy or the quality of services. Mr. Chair, we remain concerned about recruitment and retention challenges in language services, particularly in New York and Nairobi. We encourage timely competitive examinations, strategic workforce planning, and stronger partnerships with training institutions. Outreach must expand opportunities for qualified candidates from developing regions, especially Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, to strengthen geographical diversity and sustain the pool of language professionals. The underlines the importance of conference services for regional and other major groupings of member states. These meetings are essential to coordination and effective participation in intergovernmental processes. We encourage advanced planning, timely notification of service ability, and the reassignment of unused resources wherever possible. Priority in the use of conference rooms must continue to be accorded to meetings of member states. We welcome the measures taken to improve accessibility, including accessible seating, Braille printing, and sign language services. Further efforts must ensure that persons with disabilities can participate fully across all duty stations. We also welcome progress on the Nairobi Conference Facilities Project and emphasize the need to address their deteriorating condition and limited capacity while ensuring continuity of services during implementation. The group recalls the importance of adhering to the administrative guidelines governing the use of United Nations premises. All meetings, conferences, special events, and exhibits hosted on those premises must be consistent with the purposes and principles of the organization. All persons attending or involved in any capacity in a UN system event are expected to behave with integrity and respect towards all participants. The Group of 77 and China remains committed to engaging constructively to ensure that conference services are adequately resourced, accessible and responsive to Member States' needs, while preserving multilingualism and supporting the effective work of the UN. I thank you, sir. 5th Committee · Chair [16:15]: Thank you very much for your statement on behalf of Group of 77 and China. I now give the floor and pass the floor to Qatar for their statement. Thank you. Qatar [16:31]: Mr. Chair, at the outset, I would like to extend to you my sincere congratulations on your election as Chair of the Fifth Committee. I also congratulate the members of the Bureau and wish you all every success in the discharge of your duties during the 81st session. I also thank the chair of the Committee on Conferences and the Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management for introducing their respective reports. My delegation aligns itself for the statement of G7 and China, and I make the following points in my national capacity. We commend the joint efforts of the DGACM and the DGC to digitize all the UN documents and to make them more widely accessible online. These documents constitute an essential source of information, research, and historical records of the organization. We also commend the effort of DGACM to continue modernizing its services and improving their quality and to leverage new technologies, including AI. In the context of the UNAT initiative, we welcome the department's leadership of the common initiative for policy technical solutions for AI-powered language services. This should ensure that such services are used efficiently and responsibly, take into account the different use cases and the degree of human oversight required to ensure quality. The State of Qatar attaches great importance to the project to digitize documents more than 70 years old. These documents and records are important and help preserve the institutional memory of the UN and achieve its goals. They also constitute a common heritage of humanity in line with General Assembly Resolution 52/214. In that spirit, the of the state of Qatar has sponsored this vital project since 2013 it provided support totaling 5 million for the first phase 2013 2018 and 2.5 million for the second phase 2019 2023 and renewed its support with 2.5 million for the third phase 2024 2029 The aim is to preserve the valuable information contained in older documents, to make their content more searchable and accessible, and to enable its reuse for other purposes within digital repositories. We commend the progress made in implementing the project. From the 1st of January to the 31st of August 2026, a further 28,279 documents were digitized. bringing the total number of documents digitized, cataloged, and made available to the public by the Dag Hammarskjold Library to date an estimated 676,300 documents. This represents 22% of the 3 million documents identified as important and in urgent need of digitization, and includes most core Security Council documents and some General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, and trusteeship documents. In Nairobi, the digitization of a small set of historic archival material consisting of resolutions and reports of multilateral processes, was finalized. In closing, we reaffirmed that the support and sponsorship of the State of Qatar for this project reflect my government's commitment to strengthening the work of the UN organs and enabling them to fulfill their mandate in furtherance of the purposes and principles of the UN in all areas. 5th Committee · Chair [19:38]: Thank you very much, our distinguished colleague from Qatar, for your statement. There are no further comments. The committee has thus concluded its general discussion on this item. Let me sincerely thank our guest for the presentation, and we look forward to collaboration and cooperation in ensuring that documents are uploaded, reports are given on time, on schedule, to have the benefit of it also that our distinguished colleagues have time to read them ahead of time. We want to appreciate your effort this far and on behalf of the committee, we thank you for a job well done. A formal consultation on agenda one four one will be coordinated by our colleagues, Mister Ahmed Saki, former the meeting is adjourned.