UN Economic and Social Council Documentation

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)

Summary record

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

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

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)

Summary Records

Plenary meetings of the Economic and Social Council are entitled to summary record coverage:

• symbol pattern: E/year/SR.-
• example: E/2014/SR.14 Summary record of the 14th plenary meeting of 2014, on 27 May 2014

From 1946-1977, the first 2,090 plenary meetings were consecutively numbered:

• symbol pattern: E/SR.-
• example: E/SR.2051 Summary record of the 2051st plenary meeting, on 25 April 1977

Until 1981, summary records were issued for meetings of sessional committees of the ECOSOC.

• example: E/C.1/SR.59 Summary record of the 59th First Committee meeting, on 20 July 1949
• example: E/1980/C.1/SR.6 Summary record of the 6th First Committee meeting of 1980, on 18 April 1980

Press releases

Press releases for Council meetings are issued under the series symbol ECOSOC/-.

Most ECOSOC subsidiary bodies do not have official meeting records. During the course of their sessions, however, there are often detailed press releases issued for each meeting held. While unofficial in nature, these can offer insight into the meetings.

In addition, prior to a session, a Background Press Release may be issued.

At the end of a session, a Round-up or Summary may be issued.