International Organisations in Geneva

A number of Geneva-based international organisations have at least one person among their staff who deals with everything regarding relations between the organisation and NGOs. If your NGO is interested in cooperating with this organisation, the NGO liaison office (or whatever its official name may be) is your first and best contact. Your interlocutor will know the internal functioning and needs of the organisation very well and is in a good position to answer your request or to redirect you to a competent person.

United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG)
NGO Liaison Office
Mr. Ricardo Espinosa
Ms. Nathalie Dereudet
Office of the Director-General
Room 153
Palais des Nations
1211 Geneva 10
Tel: + 41 (0)22 917 21 27
Fax: +41 (0)22 917 05 83
Email: ungeneva.ngoliaison@unog.ch
Website: www.unog.ch/ngo

You may find information regarding the New York based NGO branch on this webiste.

Their contact details are the following:

NGO Branch
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
One United Nations Plaza
Room DC1-1480
New York, NY 10017
Tel: +1 212 963 8652
Fax: +1 212 963 9248
ngobranch@un.org

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Civil Society Unit
Palais Wilson
1211 Geneva 10
Tel. +41 (0)22 917 96 56
Email : civilsocietyunit@ohchr.org

Website :
- Civil Society Unit
- NGOs within the Human Rights Council

You may find a list of NGO liaison offices here.

The NGO Liaison Office of the UNOG supports NGOs participating in ECOSOC meetings and the meetings of its subsidiary organs. Therefore, for all questions related to ECOSOC consultative status, this liaison office is your interlocutor. In addition, they can help you with questions regarding meeting facilities at the Palais des Nations, as well as with questions regarding accreditation of NGOs to the UNOG (see also the chapter “Accreditation for UN conferences and other meetings in Geneva” below).

For more details consult the UNOG NGO liaison office's website.

The NGO Liaison Office of the OHCHR aims, in general terms, at facilitating NGO access to OHCR and interaction with it. Since the OHCHR functions also as the Secretariat of the Human Rights Council, questions regarding the functioning of the Council and its procedures should be addressed to this NGO Liaison Office.


On their website you can find detailed information and the right contact persons for the following topics:

1. Accreditation for a session of the Human Rights Council: Note that accreditation is always needed, even if your NGO has obtained ECOSOC consultative status, since these are two different things (See also the questions “What does ECOSOC consultative status mean?” and “What does accreditation mean?”)


2. Oral statements: Registration for oral statements will in general take place during the conference. On the website of the NGO liaision office of OHCHR, you can find the online oral statement request form, as well as detailed information on oral statements.


3. Written statements: have to be sent to this NGO liaison office. See their website for the conditions for submission of written statements


4. Agenda of meeting of the Human Rights Council


5. Draft Program of Work of the Human Rights Council


6. NGO parallel events to the sessions of the Human Rights Council: room booking, inscription on the bulletin of informal meetings and other organisational matters.

Finally, the NGO liaison office of the OHCHR organises orientation sessions for NGOs.


For further information, please see the website of the NGO liaison office of OHCHR regarding NGO participation within the Human Rights Council.