The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) opens every year on the third Tuesday of September. That week is called the UN Week. World leaders travel to New York City to attend regular sessions of the Assembly.

September is probably the busiest month for the UN, when a series of high-level sessions attended by heads of states are organized at the UN Headquarters. There are also hundreds of side events organized by multiple UN agencies, partner NGOs, individual governments and corporations.

New York is home to some of the best conference interpreters in the world. The UN has staff interpreters, accredited interpreters and contracted translation agencies. But it won’t be easy to find an available interpreter in New York, if you haven’t booked them on advance.

English to Spanish, Arabic, French, Chinese and Russian are of the highest demand because these 6 languages are official languages of United Nations. American Sign Language or International Sign Language interpreters are also much needed for inclusive meetings.

If you are attending or organizing an event in New York during the UN week, make sure to book your interpreters and interpreting equipment well on advance.

Also make sure to obtain security batches for your interpreters if you need them at the UN Headquarters. During the UN Week, some parts of the 1st Avenue will be closed, several streets leading to the UN campus may be closed. If your team is lucky you will have a room at the Millennium Hilton New York 1 UN Plaza, which is across the avenue of the UN headquarters and behind the security cordon.

Dragoman holds an LTA (Long term agreement) with the UN for onsite interpreting in 11 languages. Feel free to contact us when you need aconference interpreter, sign language interpreter or interpreting equipment in New York.

Our team and local partners in the USA will do their best to make your event a success story.