UNITAR LAUNCHES CONFERENCE MANUAL FOR UN DELEGATES

RONALD A. WALKER

Newcomers to conference diplomacy often find the environment of multilateral conferences confusing and the learning curve very steep. UNITAR’s newest and highly awaited publication, the « Manual for UN Delegates – Conference Process, Procedure and Negotiation » will help them to overcome those obstacles, familiarize themselves with conference processes and procedures and become effective more quickly. But this manual will not only be a valuable tool for beginners in multilateral diplomacy, it will also serve as a very useful reference work for more experienced conference delegates. This book will deepen their understanding of both the rules and the dynamics of conferences and help them take their skills to a higher level. Also those who give instructions to conference delegates or are affected by conference outcomes can find support here to understand how conferences reach their outcomes.
The Manual is written from the perspective of practitioners and draws on the experience of conference diplomats from many nations, both developed and developing. It describes the most important and common rules in conferences and explains them with examples of particular cases. The readers get to know the processes whereby delegations and individual delegates organize their work and advance their objectives. They are introduced to widely used strategies and tactics and are given tips as to practices which have proved effective over the years. The book also draws attention to the particular challenges faced by smaller delegations and makes suggestions as to how these can nevertheless operate effectively. The « Manual for UN Delegates » was written by Ronald A. Walker, a former Australian diplomat and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva and in Vienna. As a senior international consultant to UNITAR, he has developed and delivered online and face-to-face courses on conference diplomacy for several governments and diplomatic academies worldwide.
This newest publication complements other activities of UNITAR’s Multilateral Diplomacy Programme (MDP), especially their workshops and online courses on Conference Diplomacy. Those courses are credited with having immediate as well as long term benefits for individual delegates, for the governments they serve and for the conferences they attend.

The Manual is available from the UN bookshops in New York and Geneva.