Security Council Documentation Workshop

Introduction

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

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

The Security Council, a principal organ of the United Nations, has characteristic working methods; the documentation reflects the working methods.

Main Documents

Report of the Security Council to the General Assembly

The Security Council's annual report to the General Assembly on its activities covers:

  • Questions considered by the Security Council and matters brought to its attention;
  • Work of the Council's subsidiary bodies during the reporting period;
  • Annexes with:
    • the membership of the Council;
    • the representatives accredited to it;
    • Presidents in the reporting period;
    • Meetings held and actions taken by the Council and its subsidiary bodies.

The document is always assigned the sequential number "2" for the session in question (A/64/2) and is published as Supplement No. 2 to the Official Records of the General Assembly.

Resolutions and Decisions of the Security Council

Security Council resolutions are formal expressions of the opinion or will of the Council and may have legal and financial implications. Every resolution in the Security Council is voted on and the vote is recorded in the meeting record. Resolutions are first published as individual documents, identified by the prefix S/RES/- , and subsequently compiled into annual cumulations which are issued in the S/INF/- series as part of the Official Records of the Security Council.

Secretary General Nofitication

Released each year, Notification by the Secretary-General under Article 12, paragraph 2, of the Charter of the United Nations covers matters:

  • Being dealt with by the Security Council;
  • With which the Council has ceased to deal.
  • List of documents

Monthly Programme of Work

The presidency of the Security Council rotates each month and the new president issues a Monthly Programme of Work. This informal, unsymbolled document is posted on the Security Council website.

Assessment of the work of the Security Council during the Presidency of... in....

Each president submits a report on the activities of the Security Council during the month of its presidency. It countains:

  • Summaries of the meetings and consultations;
  • Overview for each item considered.
  • List of documents

Documents relating to the Working Methods of the Security Council

Few documents of the Security Council deal with its working methods; two that are particularly helpful:

Documents related to Meetings of the Security Council

All the documents related to a formal meeting of the Security Council are issued in all languages within two days of the meeting. Neither the provisional agenda, nor any draft resolution, is issued prior to the meeting.

Security Council meetings are numbered sequentially. The number of the meeting serves as the final number of the symbol for the provisional agenda and the meeting record.

Meeting Agenda Meeting record
5,806th meeting S/Agenda/5806 S/PV.5806

Open formal meetings generally have more documentation than closed formal meetings. Documentation for an open meetings always includes:

  • Provisional agenda (S/Agenda/-);
  • Meeting record (S/PV.-);

and may include:

  • draft resolution (S/[year]/-);
  • resolution (S/RES/-) or presidential statement (S/PRST/[year]/-).

Closed meetings have a provisional agenda (S/Agenda/-) and a meeting record (S/PV.-).

Meeting Records

Formal meetings of the Security Council always have a meeting record issued (S/PV.-):

  • Open meetings: first-person verbatim transcript of the statements (e.g. S/PV.5796);
  • Closed meetings: transmits a communique (e.g. S/PV.5797).

Meeting records contain:

  • Citation of any documentation which is before the Council;
  • Official record of any vote taken during a formal meeting.

Meeting Outcomes

Any action taken is recorded in the meeting record. Security Council meetings and related documents are recorded in the Research Guide Security Council Actions table. If the Council does not take any action, no additional document is issued. Meeting outcomes might be:

  • Communique;
  • Presidential statements: made by the President of the Security Council on behalf of the Council. It is recorded in the meeting record and in a separate document;
  • Resolutions.

Search tools

Research Guide

This table is updated on a daily basis and presented in reverse chronological order. It contains:

  • Brief descriptive topics;
  • Links to the meeting record, press release, and to any outcome document;
  • Vote summaries (if veto, Permanent Member State who exercized veto identified).

The Official Document System (ODS)

The ODS is:

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

Use the ODS to search for:

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

If the symbol of the document is known, the ODS can be a quick tool to get the document.

Daily Journal

  • 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.

Past issues of the Journal are available through the Advanced Search option of the Official Document System (ODS).

UNBISnet, the UN Bibliographic Information System

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 UN library in New York;
  • Contains separate databases for speech and voting information.

Use UNBISnet to search for:

  • Meeting records
  • Speeches
  • Voting information
  • Reports of the Secretary-General
  • Resolutions

UN-I-Que database

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:

  • Complete record of all meetings and outcome documents related to a mission;
  • Various recurrent reports of the Secretary-General.

Index to the Proceedings of the Security Council (ITP)

This is an annual print publication that organizes citation to the documents of the Security Council.

Part I: Subject

  • Organized by year, then by subject within the year.
  • Offers access to all kinds of documents:
    • meeting Records of the SC and its subsidiaries;
    • resolutions and Presidential Statements;
    • reports of the Secretary-General;
    • reports of the subsidiaries of the Security Council;
    • letters from Member States;
    • etc.

Part II:Speeches

The Index to Speeches has been issued as a print publication (issued annually since 1964) and as a database within UNBISnet (updated daily since 1983). The Index is organized by:

  • Topic;
  • Country or organization represented;
  • Speaker's name.

Voting Information

Information about voting in the Security Council is available from many places.

Information about draft resolutions not adopted is more difficult to find. For a list of Negative Votes by Permanent members (i.e. vetoes), 1946-2004, please see Annex III to the report to the 58th session of the Open-Ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council and Other Matters related to the Security Council (A/58/47).