ISO 2603 : A BRICKS-AND-MORTAR STANDARD FOR BETTER INTERPRETATION BOOTHS

ROSS PERCIVAL,SENIOR INTERPRETER MEMBER, INTERPRETATION SERVICE WORKING GROUP ON RENOVATIONS

The interpretation booth is the interface between
the world of the delegate and that of the supporting secretariat and the public at large. At UNHQ and UNOG the booths, built in the mid-twentieth century, have suffered for many years from serious shortcomings in terms of size, design and fittings. In the Palais des Nations, for example, the interpretation booths in conference rooms 8, 9 and 11 are 1m 50cm wide; each of the two interpreters in a booth therefore has only 75cm of shoulder room (photograph: interpretation booth in Conference Room 8). For purposes of comparison, Swiss and French telephone boxes are 100 cm wide; even the famous old red telephone boxes in Great Britain are 95 cm wide. UNOG interpreters are therefore required to work for prolonged periods in a space narrower than a telephone box. Would anybody agree to stay in a phone box for three hours at a time? The claustrophobic dimensions make it impossible for the interpreters to remain in the booth without interruption throughout the meeting. The result is an inevitable loss of continuity, with a corresponding impact on the quality of service which the interpreters can provide to delegations.
To avoid the repetition of such basic design problems, an international standard for the planning and construction of interpretation booths, ISO 2603, was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in conjunction with the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) and the staff interpreters of the European Commission. First adopted in 1974, ISO 2603 sets out minimum standards for new and renovated booths, and for many years the United Nations periodically undertook in writing to “make every effort to comply with the latest version of the relevant standards.” The requirements were comprehensively disregarded at UNHQ and UNOG in the decades of funding constraints and zero-growth budgeting. Today, however, under UNHQ’s multi-year, billion dollar Capital Master Plan, the renovation teams in New York are finally committed to full compliance with the specifications of ISO 2603.
In Geneva, UNOG commenced its current programme of conference room renovations a number of years ago. Perhaps due to insufficient predictable funding, or to the lack of authority to engage in long-term structural planning, the state of the interpretation booths in the Palais des Nations today seems more indicative of what happens in the absence of a Capital Master Plan.
UNOG currently provides a strangely haphazard mixture of booths. None are in full compliance with the specifications of ISO 2603. Only the booths in the Salle des Assemblées meet the ISO specifications for the size of booths: i.e. width of 2m 50cm for twoperson booths, or 3m 50cm for three interpreters; depth of 2m 40cm; and height of 2m 30cm. The booths in some of the conference rooms have been recently redecorated by the UNOG Buildings and Engineering Section (BES) and these, although in some cases seriously undersized, with still inadequate lighting, no document storage space, and woefully poor soundproofing, are nevertheless now equipped with digital sound systems.
When compared to the European Union’s state-of-the-art booths in Brussels and Strasbourg, the unrenovated booths at UNOG, with their poor sound equipment, insufficient lighting and dilapidated seats, are like so many relics of a bygone age. The booths in Conference Room 9, one example of such museum pieces, are still being assigned for high-level meetings with interpretation today, even though the wall-coverings of the booths are now held together with duck tape, and the interpreters have to keep the doors open with their waste-paper baskets in order to allow the passage of air.
Another set of venerable old booths is to be found in Conference Room 17, which, as the traditional setting for meetings of the Commission on Human Rights and now the Human Rights Council, has long been one of the most important conference rooms in the United Nations system. The sessions of the Council are all webcast and, following the elimination of summary records, the sound recordings of delegates’ statements and of the accompanying interpretation currently constitute the sole official record of Council meetings. However, the sound system in the interpretation booths in Room 17 is extremely antiquated, making accurate interpretation even more difficult. Furthermore, potentially helpful features that are standard in modern conference centres – such as flat-screen monitors linked to the Power-Point presentations in the room below – have still not been provided.
And this points to one of the problems – and perhaps one of the possibilities – facing the United Nations Office at Geneva: the Director-General has put on record his acute awareness of the run-down state of the Palais des Nations, the need to avoid piecemeal renovations, and hence the importance of ensuring adequate long-term funding and planning. It is reported that a Capital Master Plan for Geneva is unlikely before the year 2014. In the meantime, though, the ISO standards might prove useful. ISO 2603 and ISO 9001 (on certification of advanced management standards) could perhaps help to end some of the practices which so worried the Joint Inspection Unit in its review of the management and administration of the United Nations Office at Geneva (JIU/NOTE/2007/1): the “working in isolation (as opposed to teamwork), lack of cooperation, compartmentalization and antagonism (which) seem to be generalized and deep-rooted in the UNOG culture, and need to be eliminated”.
Unfortunately, recent experiences with the renovation of Conference Room 7, which is still under way, suggest that the attainment of ISO standards is not something that can be taken for granted: in the case of that key conference room substantial additional funding was provided by the Division of Administration for the renovation of the booths to ISO 2603 specifications, but the result will nevertheless not now meet the applicable ISO standards, because in Room 7 – as in so many other UNOG conference rooms - the booths will once again be 50 cm too shallow.