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GIPOV: you wrote the perfect 3-minute statement… and the Chair just announced the time limit is now 2 minutes. 🫠🎤
Do you know how speaking time and statement delivering works at the UN? 🇺🇳
Here’s what people don’t see behind those polished interventions:
1. You don’t just “get the floor.” Delegates have to wait for their turn and sometimes have to book their speaking time by pressing the button when the Chair opens the floor. There will be a rolling list of speakers that determines the order of each intervention
Then: the mic.
Green light = you’re next.
Red light = it’s your turn.
No light = don’t even breathe too loudly.
Before you start, you already know your biggest enemy: the clock.
Time limits are set in advance, but they change depending on how many delegations sign up. So yes, you may arrive with a carefully crafted speech and, on the spot, be told to cut it by 30 seconds. Or a full minute. And you have to do live editing in your head while walking to the mic.
And here’s the twist: you cannot just speak faster.
Interpreters are translating every single word in real time into six UN languages. If you rush, they can’t keep up. If they can’t keep up, your message is lost. So you learn the art of speaking calmly while your brain is screaming WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME.
And if you do run out of time?
The mic doesn’t gently warn you (yes it flashes a bit but you know.. you are just reading not caring about the mic) It just cuts off. Silence. Statement over. Whether you finished your sentence or not.
Sometimes, after you speak, another delegation may request a Right of Reply if you mentioned them or something they want to clarify. Which means your carefully timed intervention can suddenly become the start of a diplomatic back-and-forth you didn’t plan for.
All of this for two minutes at the microphone.
And somehow, in those two minutes, you’re expected to represent a country, a position, months of negotiations, and a political message, clearly, calmly, and on time.
Diplomacy is many things.
But above all, it’s a masterclass in saying exactly what matters before the red light goes off.
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#diplomacy #unitednations #speaking #didyouknow #youth
@giulia.tariello
