The UN in Vienna
Vienna as UN Seat
Beside New York and Geneva, Vienna is the third headquarters of the Secretariat of the United Nations (UN). The Vienna International Centre (VIC), which was opened in 1979, houses all of the organisations mentioned.
In 1997, in the course of the reforms of the United Nations, Vienna became a major centre of all UN efforts aimed at combating crime, drug abuse and terrorism. As a result, the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), renamed the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in autumn 2002, was set up in Vienna. Since 2002 it has been headed by Antonio Maria Costa as Executive Director, who at the same time holds the offices of Under-Secretary-General and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV). The UNODC consists of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) and the Centre for International Crime Prevention (CICP).
The UN Office at Vienna (UNOV) Secretariat unit gives administrative support to various UN bodies and institutions, and is responsible for conference planning and interpretation services for more than 2,000 conferences and meetings a year as well as for the security services at the Vienna International Centre (VIC). UNOV also includes the Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA), the Division of Administrative and Common Services (DACS) and the United Nations Information Service (UNIS).
Secretariat units which report to other Secretariat entities include the United Nations Commission on International Trade (UNCITRAL) and the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR).
Apart from the above-mentioned organisations of the UN family, Vienna also houses the branch-office of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the regional bureau of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Secretariat of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River.
Another Vienna-based organization is the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), headed by Carlos Alfredo Magariños. This organization was set up in 1966 and has become leaner following reforms in the last few years. UNIDO is the only organisation within the UN system to provide support for industrialisation in Third World countries and in the Central and Eastern European transition countries through technical assistance, consultation and mediation as well as research and study programmes aimed at the most eco-friendly industrialisation on the one hand, and through the promotion of industrial co-operation between developing and industrialised countries on the other.
Headed by Executive Secretary Wolfgang Hoffman, the Preparatory Commission with its Provisional Technical Secretariat of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) to which a sophisticated data centre is attached, has been operative in Vienna since 1997. In the same year, the global successor to COCOM, the Secretariat of the Wassenaar Arrangement on export controls for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, started operating in Vienna. It is the only of the above mentioned organisations not housed in the Vienna International Center.
Some other important international organisations based in Vienna include the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), or the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC).
