Statements/speeches made and actions taken during United Nations meetings can be recorded either as verbatim records (identified by the suffix "/PV." within the document symbol) or summary records (identified by the suffix "/SR." within the document symbol). A proces verbal (i.e., PV) is a full, first-person account of the proceedings of a meeting whereas a summary record (i.e., SR) is a third-person condensed version. Meetings of principal organs as well as those of selected subsidiary bodies are usually entitled to coverage as either verbatim or summary records, but not both. In those cases where a body is not entitled to meeting record coverage, the press release, if issued for the body in question, may function as an alternative source of information on a particular meeting until such time as a summary of the discussions is issued as part of a sessional/annual report.

Plenary meetings of the Economic and Social Council are entitled to summary record coverage (identified by the suffix "/SR." within the document symbol). The first 2,090 plenary meetings were consecutively numbered.

Example:

E/SR.2051

Summary record of the 2051st plenary meeting, on 25 April 1977

From 1978 onwards, the system changed: a new numbering sequence is established at the beginning of each year with arabic numerals following the four digits representing the year during which the meeting took place.

Example:

E/2002/SR.45

Summary record of the 45th plenary meeting of 2002, on 19 December 2002

Press releases for Council meetings are issued under the series symbol ECOSOC/-.The full text of press releases from October 1995 onwards is available from the UN News Centre.

Through 1981, summary records were issued for meetings of sessional committees of the ECOSOC.

Examples:

E/C.1/SR.59	Summary record of the 59th First Committee meeting, on 20 July 1949
E/1980/C.1/SR.6	Summary record of the 6th First Committee meeting of 1980, on 18 April 1980

The full text of recent ECOSOC meeting records can be retrieved through UNBISnet and the Official Document System of the United Nations (ODS).

Speeches made before the ECOSOC from the 10th session (1950) onwards are indexed on a sessional basis in the printed publication Index to Proceedings of the Economic and Social Council.

UNBISnet provides electronic access to citations for speeches made in the Economic and Social Council since 1983 and additionally links to the full text of recent speeches.

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