Summaries of the Organization's Proceedings
- Index to ProceedingsPublished annually with volumes for the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council (all to present), and Trusteeship Council (to its suspension in 1994). Much of each index is organized by subject, offering lists of activity surrounding that subject and documents generated, often providing hyperlinks to the accompanying documentation. Cited documentation includes resolutions, reports, meeting and voting records, and letters.
Summaries of Member State Activities
- Member States on the RecordEntries provide a membership profile for each member state, as well as links to pre-populated searches in the UN Digital Library for documents pertaining to that state.
Treaties
The UN's treaty collection includes Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General, a resource containing treaties for which the UN is the depositary, as well as the broader UN Treaty Series, which includes all treaties registered with the UN by member states. Novice treaty researchers will appreciate the glossary of treaty terminology, and other resources discussing the treaty-making process and treaty participation. Older treaties registered with the League of Nations, the UN's predecessor organization, are also available.
Meetings and Voting Records
- Meeting Coverage & Press ReleasesProvides coverage of recent meetings and press releases issued by the Secretary-General, General Assembly, Security Council, and Economic & Social Council.
- Voting RecordsThe UN Digital Library provides access to voting records for all resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council from 1946 onwards.
Judicial Opinions, Records of Proceedings, and Rules/Procedures
Documents transmitted by the International Court of Justice to UN entities including the General Assembly, such as reports, are available in the UN Digital Library, while the Court's own site is a better resource for material pertaining to particular cases. ICJ opinions are available in Westlaw and Lexis within the International databases, but these opinions are (like all international content) not searchable from the main West/Lexis search bars. ICJ opinions are also available in Oxford Reports on International Law, accessible via Databases A-Z. Though these commercial databases provide court opinions, they do not typically include other court records.
- ICJ MaterialsThe principal judicial organ of the UN is the International Court of Justice. All filings, orders, transcripts, and opinions associated with ICJ cases are available on the court's own site.
Other Legal Entities
The Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly focuses specifically on international legal matters, in consultation with the International Law Commission. The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law is another UN entity dealing specifically with legal matters, focused on international commercial law.
- International Law Commission: ResearchIncludes the ILC's analytical guide, summaries of work, text, instruments, reports, yearbooks, and other publications. Provides a document search tool.
The Security Council
- Security Council DocumentsIncludes resolutions, reports of the Secretary-General, notes by the President and presidential statements, annual reports, and press releases. Meeting records are available on the Security Council's page under Meetings > Meeting Records and Outcomes.
- Repertoire of the Practice of the Security CouncilKey data and documents relating to the practice of the Security Council, organized around the Repertoire, which provides "comprehensive coverage of the Security Council’s interpretation and application of the United Nations Charter and its own Provisional Rules of Procedure since 1946."
