United Nations - Marriott Library Collection: Official Records

Official Records

The Official Records are the major records of the UN bodies and they consist of meeting records, supplements and annexes. Annexes are compilations of the most important or relevant documents related to agenda items. The records are identified in document series symbol by the letters "PV" for verbatim records, or "SR" for summary records (e.g., A/48/PV.59 = General Assembly/48th Session/59th meeting verbatim record).

The Official Records of each main organ are shelved in at the beginning of the United Nations stacks. The supplements of the Official Records of both the Economic & Social Council, and the General Assembly consist of reports on the activities of other organs or subsidiary organs. For instance, the regional economic commissions (Economic Commission for Europe, Economic Commission for Latin America, etc.), and the functional commissions (Commission on Human Rights, Commission for Social Development, etc.) report to the Economic & Social Council annually. The following supplements to the General Assembly Official Records are important reports of activities of the main UN organs for each session. They are shelved by the series numbers indicated after the title. Report of the Secretary-general on the Work of the Organization.

(United Nations. General Assembly. Official Records. [Sess. No.]/Supp. No.1) Report of the Security Council.

(United Nations. General Assembly. Official Records. [Sess. No.]/Supp. No.2) Report of the Economic & Social Council on the Work of its --- Session.

(United Nations. General Assembly. Official Records. [Sess. No.]/Supp. No.3) Report of the Trusteeship Council.

(United Nations. General Assembly. Official Records. [Sess. No.]/Supp. No.4)

Resolutions

Recent Resolutions, like United States laws, are numbered consecutively. They are issued first in mimeographed form (also called Masthead Documents), and are located in the UN collection:

Resolutions of the General Assembly, 1946-present;
Resolutions of the Security Council, 1946-present;
Resolutions of the Economic & Social Council, 1970-present;
Resolutions of the Trusteeship Council, 1970-present.

The UN Office of Public Information issues a press release after the closing of the General Assembly with the resolutions and voting records of that session. This press release is titled, Resolutions of the General Assembly at the First Part of its [sess. no.] Regular Session.

Older General Assembly resolutions can also be found in the following sources:

1. Dusan J. Djonovich. United Nations Resolutions.
Series I. Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly.
JX 1977 A3155 D57 ser.1

2. United Nations, General Assembly. Official Records.
Resolutions and Decisions adopted by the General Assembly during its --- Session.


To find a specific resolution, look in either of the above sources in the volume that correlates with the session or year during which the resolution was passed. Look in the index of resolutions to find out on what page the text of the resolution is. If you need help, ask the Reference staff for assistance.