Editorial Manual

Reports of intergovernmental and expert bodies

 

Drafting guidelines 

Reports should be action-oriented and limited to:

  1. A brief discussion on organizational and procedural matters.
  2. Recommendations, including resolutions and decisions adopted and draft resolutions and decisions recommended for adoption by the parent body.
  3. Policy recommendations emanating from expert groups, panels, round tables and multi-stakeholder dialogues.
  4. New developments, findings and recommendations, particularly for recurrent reports.

Reports should not include:

  1. A summary of statements made at opening and closing meetings, unless pertinent to the conclusion reached.
  2. Summaries of statements by individuals; a list of speakers for each item can be included instead.
  3. A general summary of statements under each item.
  4. Analysis of information provided, unless required to support policy findings.
  5. A lengthy discussion of organizational and procedural matters.
  6. Repetition of already published texts or repetition of texts with only minor changes; an exception is made for draft resolutions that are submitted to an intergovernmental body but not adopted, since such texts are needed for the parliamentary record.
  7. Quotations from United Nations documents, unless legislative authority is being cited.
  8. Extraneous information that does not contribute to deliberations.