Main Committees

© United Nations

Because of the great number of questions it is called upon to consider, the Assembly allocates items relevant to its work among its six main committees. Each committee deliberates during the Assembly session, votes on issues by single majority and submits draft resolutions to the General Assembly for a vote in plenary. 

The six main committees are: 

The main committees submit a separate report to the plenary on the items considered by them. These reports constitute the draft resolutions/decisions which are being recommended to the plenary.   

Documentation

The symbols of the Main Committee Documents have the following construction: 

A/     General Assembly

-/C.1-6 committee number 1-6

-/session number

-/consecutive number

Ex. A/C.3/58/10 General Assembly, Third Committee, 58th session, document 10

The meeting records of the main committees are published as summary records. They submit a separate report to the plenary - working documents for the plenary  - on every agenda item allocated to them transmitting the final version of draft resolutions/decisions which are being recommended to the plenary for adoption. The draft resolutions are entitled according to the item they reflect, such as Crime prevention and criminal justice: report of the Third Committee.  

The printed documents from the main committees for the period 1946-1992 will be found in the UN Collection of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, in the libraries at UN Headquarters  in New York and Geneva and in other UN depository libraries. Documents from 1993- can be retrieved from the United Nations Documents System -  ODS.

A short introduction to the work of the main committees with full text documents from 1997- can be accessed via the website of the General Assembly.   

Databases and Indexes

References to the documents from the main committees with links to full texts for recent years can be retrieved from the UN Library online catalogue UNBISnet

Main committee full text documents from 1993 can be accessed from the United Nations Document System - ODS.  

Main committee press releases from October 1995 onwards are posted at the web site UN Press Releases & Meetings Coverage


Printed Indexes 

All main committee documents are indexed in the United Nations Documents Index. A complete collection of the indexes can be found in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala and in the libraries at UN Headquarters in
 

Text: Gunnel Torén | Dag Hammarskjöld Library | Latest update: 24/06/2010