Permanent representative to the United Nations Permanent representative to the United Nations A permanent representative (sometimes called a "UN ambassador") is the head of a diplomatic mission to the United Nations. Of these, the most high-profile UN permanent representatives are those assigned to headquarters in New York City. However, member states also appoint permanent representatives to the other UN offices in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Many countries, including the United States, call their UN permanent representative "UN ambassadors". Although a permanent representative holds the equivalent diplomatic rank of an ambassador (or chief of mission or high commissioner), he or she is accredited to an international organisation,
Headquarters of the United Nations 1961. The UN identifies Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish as its six official languages. Delegates speaking in any of these languages will have their words simultaneously interpreted into all of the others, and attendees are provided with headphones through which they can hear the interpretations. A delegate is allowed to make a statement in a non-official language, but must provide either an interpreter or a written copy of his/her remarks translated into an official language. English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat, as most of the daily communication within the Secretariat and most