United Nations Research

According to Bluebook Rule 21.7, United Nations materials fall into six major categories:

1. VERBATIM AND SUMMARY RECORDS (Rule 21.7.1): The minutes or full-text transcripts of the sessional meetings of various UN bodies can be found here. Complete transcripts of meetings or “verbatim” records as they are called by the Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Trusteeship Council are kept in the Official Records of those organs. The Economic and Social Council and the Trade and Development Board do not maintain verbatim records, just minutes. All citations to verbatim and summary records should be to the Official Records whenever possible.  References to the Official Records of these bodies are abbreviated GAOR, SCOR, etc. (See Table T.3 in the Bluebook). 

Official records also include "Annexes," which republish selected mimeographed documents. "Supplements" are also part of the Official Records.  Some supplements also contain annual reports of various commissions and committees submitted to their parent body.
 

2. RESOLUTIONS (Rule 21.7.2):

According to the Bluebook, “[t]he final, authorized version of resolutions appear in the Official Records. However, it has become customary to cite the electronic versions found in the Official Document System (ODS) of the United Nations using resolution symbols. Cite resolutions either to the Official Records or using resolution symbols.”

General Assembly resolutions and decisions are compiled into sessional cumulations that have traditionally  been published as the final supplement to the Official Records of the General Assembly. However, from the 42nd session (1987-1988) onwards, Supplement No. 49 has been designated to contain the resolutions and decisions of a given regular session. 

Security Council resolutions and decisions are compiled into annual cumulations which are issued in the S/INF/- series as part of the Official Records of the Security Council. 
 

3. REPORTS (Rule 21.7.3): According to the Bluebook, when citing reports from UN committees the citation should include the name of the body and the subcommittee, if any, the title of the report, the document symbol, and the date.  Many reports of major bodies of the General Assembly are printed as supplements to the Official Records.
 

4. SALES PUBLICATIONS (Rule 21.7.7): Sales publications are important annuals, statistical compendia, individual studies, etc., available for purchase from the UN. An example of a sales publication is the Yearbook of the United Nations.  Sales publications are assigned unique UN Sales Numbers (e.g., E.92.IV.1). When citing a Sales publication, Bluebook Rule 21.7.7(d) also requires citation to the Sales Number.

Search JACOB, the Jacob Burns Law Library’s online catalog to identify Library holdings of individual sales publications.

5. MASTHEAD DOCUMENTS (Rule 21.7.4):

Also known as "mimeographed documents", these are the first and only published format for many U.N. documents. They include draft documents, the initial publication of important items such as resolutions, as well as many ephemeral items of marginal interest to those outside the organization. Each masthead document has a U.N. document symbol (its unique identification number). There is nothing in the document symbol, however, to indicate to the user whether or not something is a mimeo document. Most collections of mimeo documents, whether in paper or microfiche, are arranged by the U.N. document symbols, for example, A/46/468.

The Jacob Burns Law Library generally does not have mimeographed documents in their original print format.

6. YEARBOOKS AND PERIODICALS (Rule 21.7.8): The UN publishes a number of yearbooks and periodicals, such as the Yearbook of the United Nations and the U.N. Chronicle.

The Bluebook also provides rules for the citation of UN Press Releases and Memoranda (Rule 21.7.5), Adjudicatory Bodies Established by the UN (Rule 21.7.6), Regional Organization Documents (Rule 21.7.9) and the UN Charter (Rule 21.7.10).

BASIC PATTERN OF SYMBOLS

Most U.N. documents are identified by an alphanumeric number called a "U.N. document symbol."  An example of a document symbol is: E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/23/Rev.1.  The letters in the U.N. document symbol system identify the issuing body and that body's place in the hierarchy of the U.N. organization.  In the above symbol:

E = Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); the parent body

CN.4 = Commission on Human Rights

Sub. 2 = Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities     

1993 = document year

23 = 23rd document

Rev.1 = Revision 1 of the document

Slashes (/) separate the various elements of the U.N. document symbol.  This distinguishes the symbols from other numbering systems such as U.N. sales numbers (which use periods).
 

SELECTED KEY SYMBOLS

The first letter appearing in the U.N. document symbol denotes the major U.N. organ from which the document originated.  The most common symbols and their corresponding U.N. organs are:

A/-  General Assembly
E/-  Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
S/-  Security Council
ST/- Secretariat
T/-  Trusteeship Council

Following the first slash in the U.N. document number are acronyms denoting other parent bodies:

/CCPR/- Human Rights Committee
/CERD/- International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
/TD/-   U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
/UNEP/- U.N. Environment Programme

Following the second slash, letter abbreviations refer to a specific type of organization:

/AC./-   Ad-Hoc Committee
/C./-    Standing or permanent committee
/CN./-   Commission
/CONF./- Conference
/SC./-   Sub-committee
/Sub./-  Sub-commission
/WG./-   Working Group

After the third slash, the type of document is indicated by the following letters:

/PV/-   Verbatim records of meetings (procès verbaux)
/RES./ - Resolution
/SR./-   Summary record of meeting
/WP./-   Working Paper

A modification of the text is indicated after the fourth slash:

/Add./-   Addendum (Indicates an addition of text to the main document)
/Amend./- Amendment (Alteration, by decision of a competent authority, of a portion of an adopted formal text.)
/Corr./-  Corrigendum (Indicates modification of any specific part of an existing document to correct errors, revise wording, or reorganize text.)
/Rev./-   Revision (Indicates a new text which supersedes and replaces that of a  previously issued document)            

Following the fourth slash, letters denoting distribution status are listed:

/L._  Limited (documents for which wide circulation is not desired because of their temporary nature (draft resolutions, draft reports, preliminary action documents.)
/R._  Restricted (Applies to documents whose confidential contents require that they be withheld from public circulation. Note: these documents are usually unavailable)