Liberia is chairing the 2017 Substantive Session of the United Nations Committee on Conferences, which got off to a successful start on Tuesday, September 5, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

According to a dispatch from Liberia’s Permanent Mission in New York, the committee is led by Liberia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, His Excellency Ambassador Lewis Garseedah Brown, II. Committee members will consider practical issues that ensure that conference services including documentation, translation and interpretation, work smoothly during the 72nd General Assembly and other UN meetings and conferences.

The issues under consideration include the adoption of the biennial calendar of conferences and meetings of the United Nations for 2018 and 2019; proposals for unofficial UN holidays and monitoring the implementation of all General Assembly resolutions on the organization and servicing of conferences and meetings.

United Nations Under Secretary for General Assembly and Conference Management, Catherine Pollard, graced the opening of the Substantive Session and presented the Secretary General's Report on the Patterns of Conferences.

The report highlighted the services provided by the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management; noting that the Department serviced 35,000 meetings and translated 246 million words in 2016.

Madam Pollard said despite budgetary constraints, the Department is implementing a strategy that strengthens advanced planning and leverages technology to improve productivity and efficiency at all United Nations duty stations.

She pledged her Department's support to ensure that the Committee on Conferences delivers on its mandate.

The Committee on conferences was established by a General Assembly resolution in 1974 to advise the General Assembly on all matters pertaining to the organization of UN conferences and acts  on behalf of the General Assembly in dealing with departures from the approved calendar of conferences that have administrative and financial implications.

The 21-member committee also include representatives from France, Kenya, Iran, Jamaica, Hungary, and the United States.