Research Guides: Model United Nations: Finding UN Documents

Helpful Links

UN Documents
This site has full-text, born-digital UN documents published from 1993 onward, but does not have the following types of materials: documents issued before 1993 that have not yet been digitized, press releases, sales publications, such as the Yearbook and the Treaty Series, and documents that do not have a UN symbol.
UN Document Symbols
You notice lots symbols that you might not know the meaning of. This link will help explain them.
UN Association
If you go to the "Model UN" tab, you'll find helpful information and suggestions in how to prepare, conduct research, and find documents.

Resoultions

United Nations Digital Library
Official Document System of the United Nations
The Official Document System (ODS) is an online database of UN documents that was first launched in 1993 and updated in 2016. ODS has full-text, born-digital UN documents published from 1993 onward, including documents of the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and their subsidiaries, as well as administrative issuances and other documents.

The database also includes scanned documents published between 1946 and 1993, including all resolutions of the principal organs, all documents of the Security Council and the General Assembly Official Records. Documents are available in the official languages of the UN; some documents are also available in German.

There are several ways to find resolutions and draft resolutions through United Nations Digital Library (link listed above). The easiest way will be the ones listed below.

1) Click on keyword search under "bibliographic records" on the homepage

2) For a more general search, select subject (all) in the first drop down menu and type in your topic or keyword

3) By document symbol or number: search by "UN document symbol/sales number keyword"

A/RES=General Assembly

S/Res-Security Council

E/Year=Economic and Security Council

4) If you want to narrow down your results more, select "B01" or "B02" under "type of material" under the "limits" section. This will refine the results to only show resolutions or draft resolutions.

5) If you want to browse around, you have several options. To decrease your result number, try limiting your search. Options include "type of material," "language," and "databases," and "year" (among other choices).

Voting Records

UN Document Center
ODS is the UN's Official Document System. You can search for UN documents by keywords, then narrow your search.

The links above will help you find the voting records for the country you are searching for.

1. Go to the UN Document Center (see link above)
2. Choose the main body in which you are interested, then on "Resoultions." Select a session
3. If you see any labeled "without vote, " you will not find voting records for them
4. Write down the document number/resolution symbol (i.e. A/RES/64/292 or S/RES/1383). You don't need to include the year. Write down the title to match in case you get multiple results in the nest step.
5. Next, go to UNBISnet (see link above)
6. Find "Voting Records.," and click on "New Keyword Search"
7. Search by "UN resolution symbol" and type the document number/resolution symbol
9. Information about the resolution will come up. Scroll down to find your country.

Keyword searching is also available.

Symbols

Y=yes P=Permanent member of security council

N=no R=Rotating member of security council

A=abstained

Blank=did not participate