Visiting the UN

The UN is an interesting place. It consists of several buildings. However when you go to visit the UN you can only visit one building. But it's the building that has the General Assembly hall in it - that's the one you see in the News reports.

A sculpture outside the UN entrance.

The General Assembly Hall where all 193 countries meet to discuss issues.

This box is one of the original boxes used to collect votes when East Timor had their
first vote, with help from the UN.

Entrance to the UN.

Security Council room where there are 5 permanent members
(China, France, UK, Russia and USA)
and 10 non permanent members (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil,
Columbia, Gabon, Germany, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Portugal and
South Africa). 

I was not expecting too much from the tour but if you do have some spare time when visiting New York, take the time to visit it. I love the main building. It was designed in the 50's however I felt that they were extremely forward thinking in their design of such an important place.

Once you get through security you are no longer in New York you are on neutral territory. They even have their own security and postcode with postage stamps that you can only use within the UN boundary. I found the tour very comprehensive. On days when the assembly is not sitting you can go into the hall and take photos - just like I did. However September is the start of the new year in the UN so from September through to December you may not have much luck in getting into the assembly hall.

The same could be said for the Security Council. However, according to the guide the Security Council meets nearly every day so you have to take your chances. I was very lucky.