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UN Security Council Documentation

Meeting Records, in general

Statements made during UN meetings may be issued as documents called meeting records. There are two types of meeting records:

Verbatim record

  • full, first-person account of the meeting
  • symbol includes PV.--

Verbatim Record (S/PV.6826, 30 August 2012)

Verbatim Record (S/PV.6826, 30 August 2012)

Summary record

  • third-person condensed version of the meeting
  • symbol includes SR.--

Summary Record (A/C.4/66/SR.10, 8 Feb. 2012)

Summary record A/C.4/66/Sr.10

Meeting records are not issued for all UN meetings. Principal organs and selected subsidiaries may have either verbatim or summary records, but not both.

If a body is not entitled to meeting record coverage, information about the meetings may be found in:

  • press releases, if issued, and
  • sessional or annual reports.

Press releases are available online. 

The Index to Speeches, both online and in print, provides citation to speeches and full text links when available, for:

  • General Assembly beginning with its 38th session (1983)
  • Security Council beginning with its 19th year (1964) 
  • Economic and Social Council beginning in 1946 (ECOSOC speech index completed in 2022)
  • Trusteeship Council beginning with its 15th special session (1982)

Security Council Meeting Records

The Security Council may meet in formal or informal meetings.

Formal meetings

Formal meetings are chaired by the President of the Security Council. The Presidency of the Council rotates monthly, according to the English alphabetical listing of its member States.

Formal meetings have been numbered consecutively since 1946 and may be open or closed.

All open formal meetings are accorded verbatim meeting records, a detailed, first person record of statements made.

Communiqués, issued for closed formal meetings, summarize the topic discussed.

Draft resolutions are voted on in open formal meetings. If a vote is held, the result appears in the meeting record.

Press releases are issued for open formal meetings of the Security Council and may include the unofficial text of a resolution adopted.

  • press release series symbol: SC/-
  • example: SC/10608

Informal meetings

No meeting records or press releases are issued for informal meetings.

There may be UN webcast of a "media stakeout" following either a formal or informal meeting of the Security Council. Media stakeouts are informal statements to the press by participants in the meeting.