Content

Introduction

Main Documents

• Agenda
• Reports of the Secretary-General
• Sessional Reports
• Reports of the Main Committees
• Meeting Records
• Resolutions and Decisions
• Voting Information

Online Resources

• UN-I-QUE
• UNBISnet
• ODS
• UN Documents
• Research Guide
• Quicklinks
• Press releases
• Daily Journal

Practical Exercises

• UN-I-QUE
• UNBISnet
• ODS

Workshop on General Assembly Documentation

Introduction

This workshop will introduce the documentation of the General Assembly. Through lecture, demonstration and hands-on practice, workshop participants will learn to identify and access the full text of General Assembly documents.

Hands-on training will include electronic library resources such as:

UN Documentation Research Guide
UNBISnet
Official Document System (ODS)
UN-Info-Quest (UN-I-Que)

The General Assembly is the main deliberative organ of the United Nations. Each of the 192 Member States has one vote. The Assembly meets every year in regular session commencing in September.

The basic format for the symbols of General Assembly documents is:

A/[session]/[sequential number] : A/52/1
From 1946 to 1975, the format was A/[sequential number] : A/9601

Main Documents

Agenda

Items arrive on the agenda through different avenues:

1. Resolutions from previous GA sessions
2. Rules of Procedure (Rule 13)
3. Principle organs of the UN
4. Member States
5. States not Members of the U.N. (Charter, Article 35, para.2)
6. Secretary-General

Journey of an Agenda Item - 62nd Session

Agenda Item allocated to the Plenary

Agenda Item 12: Support by the UN system of the efforts of governments to promote and consolidate new or restored democracies.

Agenda Item allocated to a Main Committee

Agenda Item 61: Towards global partnerships. Allocated to the Second Committee.

Report of the Secretary-General

• In addition to his annual report on the work of the organization, which is always document number 1 of the session (A/64/1 for the 64th session), the Secretary-General also reports on a number of issues as requested by General Assembly resolutions.
• Most agenda items have a report of the Secretary-General as one of its documents.
• See document on status of documentation report issued for each session for the list of reports issued or to be issued under each item (A/63/915/Add.1 for the 64th session).

Sessional reports

1. Generally issued as Supplement to the Official Records of the General Assembly.
2. Subsidiary bodies (e.g., International Law Commission, Human Rights Committee, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women) falling within the purview of the General Assembly and are required to report annually (sometimes biannually) on their activities.
3. Complete listings of the document symbols for the reports of all subsidiary bodies (1946 onwards) can be obtained from UN-I-QUE.

Reports of the Main Committees

There are six main committees of the General Assembly:

1. First Committee to which agenda items relating to disarmament and international security are allocated.
   The working documents of this committee are identified by the prefix A/C.1/- ;
2. Second Committee to which agenda items relating to economic and financial matters are allocated.
   The working documents of this committee are identified by the prefix A/C.2/- ;
3. Third Committee to which agenda items relating to social, humanitarian and cultural matters are allocated.
   The working documents of this committee are identified by the prefix A/C.3/- ;
4. Fourth Committee to which agenda items relating to special political and decolonization matters are allocated.
   The working documents of this committee are identified by the prefix A/C.4/- ;
5. Fifth Committee to which agenda items relating to administrative and budgetary matters are allocated.
   The working documents of this committee are identified by the prefix A/C.5/- ;
6. Sixth Committee to which agenda items relating to legal matters are allocated.
   The working documents of this committee are identified by the prefix A/C.6/- .

• The Main Committees submit a separate report to the plenary on every agenda item allocated to them.
• These reports synthesize the committees' consideration of the items and transmit the final version of draft resolutions/decisions which are being recommended to the plenary for adoption.
• These reports become working documents for the plenary, so individual committee prefixes are not used for their document symbols.

Meetings Records

Statements and speeches made and actions taken during UN meetings are recorded in meeting records. There are two types of meeting records:

1. Verbatim records (proces verbal)
   1. Symbol has .../PV.-
      (A/63/PV.44)
   2. Contains full, first-person account of the proceedings of a meeting.
2. Summary records
   1. Symbol has .../SR.-
      (A/C.5/63/SR.25)
      
   2. Contains a third-person condensed version of the proceedings of a meeting.

Only the plenary meetings and First Committee meetings have PVs, the rest of the Main Committees only issue summary records (SR).

Resolutions/Decisions

Resolutions

United Nations resolutions are formal expressions of the opinion or will of United Nations organs.

General Assembly resolutions are first published as individual documents and are later compiled into sessional or annual cumulations.

The symbols for resolutions issued as individual documents are as follows:

• A/RES/[session]/-
  • A/RES/60/1
  • A/RES/62/149

Decisions

The term "decision" is used to designate formal actions, other than resolutions, dealing with non-substantive or routine matters such as elections, appointments, the time and place of meetings and the taking note of reports.

They are sometimes also used to record the adoption of a text representing the consensus of the members of a given organ.

General Assembly decisions are not issued as individual documents. They are included in the annual cumulations of resolutions and decisions and may also be accessed through the meeting record where it was adopted.

Voting Information

• The majority of General Assembly resolutions are adopted without a vote;
• Voting information will first becomes accessible (in unofficial form) in the press release produced immediately after the conclusion of the meeting;
• Official voting information can be retrieved from the record of the meeting at which the vote was taken. Since the 54th session, voting information has been included in the annual cumulations of resolutions of the General Assembly;
• Voting can also be conducted at the Committee level and information about this is available in the meeting record of the Committee.

Online Resources

UN-I-Que database

http://lib-unique.un.org/lib/unique.nsf

UN-I-Que provides access to document symbols/sales numbers for UN materials from 1946 onwards.

UN-I-Que has:

• Information about UN documents of a recurrent nature;
• Each record is comprehensive historically;
• Provides the symbols only;
• Types of documents include:
  • annual/sessional reports of committees/commissions;
  • annual publications;
  • reports periodically/irregularly issued;
  • reports of major conferences;
  • statements in the General Debate.
• Search by title only.

Use UN-I-QUE for:

• Reports of the Main Committees on each of the Agenda items;
• Sessional reports of subsidiary bodies reporting to the General Assembly;
• Various recurrent reports of the Secretary-General.

UNBISnet, the UN Bibliographic Information System

http://unbisnet.un.org/

UNBISnet is:

• The catalogue of the UN library in New York;
• Begins in 1979;
• Contains information about UN documents and sales publications;
• Links to full text of documents and other resources, when available;
• Contains information about the books and journals held by the NY library;
• Contains separate databases for speech and voting information.

Use UNBISnet to search for:

• Meeting records
• Speeches
• Voting information
• Reports of the Secretary-General
• Sessional reports
• Main Committee reports
• Resolutions

The Official Document System (ODS)

http://documents.un.org/

The ODS is:

• A full text searchable database of UN documents;
• Provides online access to masthead documents and official records;
• Begins in 1993;
• Resolutions 1946-1993 are available through Advanced Search.

Use the ODS to search for:

• Reports
• Resolutions
• All documents issued under an agenda item
• Older issues of the daily journal

UN Documents

http://www.un.org/documents/

Research Guide

http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/

• Excellent starting place to learn about the UN and its documentation;
• Provides information about symbols and how they are structured;
• Provides detailed information about the General Assembly and its documents.

Quicklinks

http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/quick.htm

• Provides quick reference to recently adopted GA resolutions, including related information such as draft resolutions, meeting numbers and press releases.

Press Releases

http://www.un.org/apps/pressreleases/

• Provides advance information on meetings held on a particular day;
• Official records of meetings take time to be printed;
• Not considered official record;
• Detailed information about meetings including speeches, text of resolutions and voting details.

Daily Journal

http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/En/lateste.pdf

• Provides information on meetings being held on the day, including forthcoming ones;
• Provides summary of meetings held the day before;
• Provides daily list of documents.

Practical Exercises

UN-I-QUE

1. Find all the reports of the Secretary-General on financing of the UN operation in Burundi.
2. What is the symbol of the latest report of the Human Rights Council ?
3. Find all speeches made by your country in the general debate.
4. Find the list of all reports of the 1st Committee during the 60th session.

UNBISnet

1. Find the latest report of the Secretary-General on financing in Burundi.
2. Find all resolutions on the issue of partnerships.
3. Find all speeches made by your representative in the 3rd Committee during the 61st session.
4. Find all resolutions that were voted on in the 61st session.

ODS

1. Find all documents relating to agenda item 98 in the 61st session of the GA
2. In which Committee was this item discussed?
3. Identify the draft resolutions.
4. How many summary records are there?