This page aims to highlight key UN Library resources to research the legislative history of a UN General Assembly resolution. The legislative or procedural history of a resolution means the discussions, draft proposals and actions taken on those proposals, leading up to the adoption of the resolution.
There are many reasons one may wish to know about the background to the adoption of a resolution. Here we point out some resources for this type of research available through the Library and provide suggestions based on our experiences helping people navigate UN information over time. Searches link to the UN Digital Library.
1. Start with the latest resolution
In our FAQ about starting UN research, we recommend: "Start with a resolution and work back in time. Resolutions usually cite preceding resolutions, as well as other documents that were considered by the body during its deliberations on the topic."
- Search the UN Digital Library by keyword, title, symbol, or other citation information
- Sort by year to get the most recent first
- In the UN Digital Library, the voting record of an adopted resolution has links to drafts, meeting records, and the resolution text, and the recorded vote of each UN member state: e.g. A/RES/78/243 voting record
UN Digital Library
The United Nations Digital Library (UNDL) includes UN documents, voting data, speeches, maps, and open access publications. The platform provides access to UN-produced materials in digital format and bibliographic records for print UN documents starting in 1979. System features include linked data between related documentation such as resolutions, meeting records and voting, and refining of searches by UN body, agency or type of document.
To expand and refine your search within the UN Digital Library
Searches can be modified in various ways.
First, search by keyword, phrase, symbol, or other relevant information: example: Search for symbol A/RES/78/234
2. Learn the history of a resolution
- The Annotated List (or annotated provisional agenda) gives an overview of each agenda item and provides first instance of adoption of a resolution on the item, describes major milestones, and cites to key documents and documents issued for the most recent consideration of the item by the Assembly
- Other resources include the Index to Proceedings and the UN Yearbook
3. Find Member States' positions on a resolution
Statements, votes, and draft resolution sponsorship can all provide evidence of a state's position. Different types of documents have different types of information. Some established practices of the General Assembly are changing as conference services move online and patterns of documentation are also changing, we will try to keep this guide updated.
Sponsor of draft resolutions
Draft resolutions are put forward by, tabled by, or sponsored by states or by officers of the Assembly, such as Chair or President. In practice, there are certain patterns in the documentation of the General Assembly.
- Draft proposals are often called "L documents" because they usually include L in the symbol
- For A/RES/78/243, the Third Committee's draft resolution was A/C.3/78/L.60/Rev.1
- The UN Digital Library voting record of an adopted resolution has links to drafts, meeting records, and the resolution text, and the recorded vote of each UN member state and a good starting point for this type of research
- Draft resolutions or decisions include the sponsor or co-sponsors of the proposal, these are recorded as authors in the bibliographic records of the drafts in the UN Digital Library. Sponsors are not listed in the final adopted resolution text.
- Draft resolutions or decisions are introduced for consideration/adoption in open, formal meetings of the plenary; there may or may not be debate on the item when the draft is introduced.
- Some other symbol elements that are helpful include:
- /Add. Addenda to L documents often include additional sponsors, rather than an addition to the text of the draft proposal
- /Amend. Amendments usually change the text of the proposal
- /Corr. Corrections are usually technical errors like typos, and may be issued in one or more languages
- /Rev. Revisions are new text based on previous draft of the same symbol, may incorporate Adds, Amends, and/or Corrs. to the original document
- Suggestions and strategies to improve research results:
- To find who sponsored a draft proposal, check draft resolutions and meeting records. Beginning in 2024, with the 79th session, sponsors and main sponsor information can be found in igov website
- In meetings, the presiding officer usually invites the main sponsor to introduce the draft by the using the phrase, “I give the floor to the representative of [COUNTRY] to introduce draft resolution...”, a sample search is given below
- This language can vary. As an alternative, search meetings for the document symbol of the draft to see who introduced it
- The Index to Proceedings can be very useful for this type of research, especially for older materials which may not be fully indexed in the UN Digital Library
- Turn on Fulltext search in UN Digital Library to expand keyword results
- We have online trainings and webinars that may help you with your research. Check our YouTube channel or our Training Guides
General Assembly voting information
Most resolutions are adopted without vote in the General Assembly. For guidance on finding voting information, please see the research guides and relevant collections of the UN Digital Library.
Statements, Speeches, Interventions
Statements may be made on agenda item, in right of reply, in explanation of vote before/after, informal meetings, outside of UN, in bodies without meeting records, press conferences, edelegate, igov, websites, Permanent Mission websites, online news, social media, databases, Diplomatic Pulse, etc, etc. There is a wealth of information from states on their positions and not all of it may be captured in UN documents; basic and advanced internet searches are recommended to get context.
To find statements in explanation of vote, search with Fulltext ON for the country name and "explanation of vote" in the meeting records or letters. This may return false positive results, it may take some reading to find what you are looking for. Here are some samples of statements made by the US on A/RES/78/234 and related resolutions from both UN documents and US government (non-UN) sources:
Additional sources:
Diplomatic Pulse
Diplomatic Pulse is a specialized search engine that pools together official press releases from all UN Member States.
