UN Voting

For recent votes in the General Assembly or Security Council and until the official records are published, we recommend checking the following sources:

• Recorded session: The UN Journal will have the link or you can search in UN TV for the meeting.
• E-delegate: Only for UN Delegates and UN Staff.
• Press Release of the Meeting: It will usually include general information on the voting: Meetings coverage and Press Releases.

Looking for the votes of Member States on General Assembly and/or Security Council Resolutions? From our Dataset in the Digital Library, you can download a csv file with a breakdown of recorded votes. 

How to find voting records using the Voting Database:

In the Voting Data Collection, you will find a record of how Member States voted for each adopted resolution of the General Assembly and the Security Council:

• Search by keyword (example: peacebuilding) or document symbol (example: A/RES/79/10)
• The database uses the following notations to present the voting information in the record: 'Y' for Yes, 'N' for No, 'A' for Abstain. If there is no mark before the Member State's name, it means that the country did not vote.

The Voting Database will provide links to related documents such as the draft resolution, the meeting record and the committee report.

The Digital Library updates the Voting Database promptly after information is released. Note that there are no voting records for votes on draft resolutions not adopted.

The OHCHR Library maintains another database for voting in the Human Rights Council.

In addition to the specialized collection of Voting Data in the UN Digital Library, voting information also is recorded in the description of certain documents. Because some of the metadata fields where this information is recorded are not displayed in the records, it can be difficult to find this information.

Here are some of the ways vote information may be found:

• Type of material (MARC field 089) code B07 is assigned to documents that contain voting, including meeting records and reports of subsidiary bodies. Search in UN Digital Library for 089:B07
• A vote note (MARC field 996) is added to records for adopted resolutions. The note provides a summary of the vote and the meeting number at which the vote was held. Search in UN Digital Library for 996:%
• Type of material (MARC field 089) code B06 indicating a veto is assigned to Security Council meeting records and draft resolutions, as appropriate. Search in UN Digital Library for 089:B06
• For Security Council drafts not adopted but not vetoed, a note (MARC field 515) is added to the record of the draft resolution. This field is displayed. Search in UN Digital Library for "The draft resolution was not adopted having failed to obtain the required number of votes"

To view non-displayed MARC fields in a record, click on Formats and then select MARC or MARCXML. This displays all the descriptive metadata of the record in MARC field order. To view the MARC fields for all results, click on Options and then select Format MARC or MARCXML. This displays all descriptive metadata for all records. It is also possible to export the metadata for up to 200 records.