Resolutions

© United Nations

Each Member Nation has one vote in the General Assembly and every vote is equal. Decisions of the General Assembly on important questions shall be made by two-thirds majority of the members present and voting. These questions include recommendations on peace and security, election of members to organs, admission, suspension, and expulsion of members and budgetary matters. Decisions on other questions are reached by a simple majority. Most resolutions are adopted without a vote. A recorded vote must be requested before the voting is conducted.

A detailed description of the voting procedure can be found in the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly

The Assembly may make recommendations on any matters within the scope of the UN but the resolutions are not binding on the member states. They carry, however, the weight of world opinion as well as the moral authority of the world community. and all member states have an obligation to act in cooperation with the United Nations. 
The so called "decisions" taken by the General Assembly are binding. The are dealing with matters internal to the United Nations such as budgetary questions, and the apportioning of contributions of member states to the UN regular budget.

Documentation

General Assembly resolutions carry the following document symbols:

For the period before 1976 the resolutions were consecutively numbered. After that they are counted from number 1-  within each session.

N.B. The year is not given.  

A/     General Assembly

-/RES resolution

-/session number

-/consecutive number

Ex. A/RES/52/15 General Assembly resolution, 52nd session, number 15

General Assembly resolutions are published in different versions. The official text is published after each session as the last number in the series Supplements to the Official Records of the General Assembly.  The complete series of supplements can be found in the UN Collection of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala and in the Libraries of the UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva

Nowadays the full text of General Assembly resolutions from the 1st session (1946) onwards is retrievable through
the Official Home Page of the UN, under the section Documents, General Assembly, Resolutions

Texts of resolutions and/or decisions of committees, commissions and other subsidiary bodies are included in their annual/sessional reports to the parent body included in the series Supplements to the Official Records of the General Assembly

 

Databases and Indexes

The United Nations Official Document System - ODS includes the official records version of resolutions of the General Assembly. 

UNBISnet - the online catalogue of the UN libraries in New York and Geneva provides bibliographic information and links to the official text all General Assembly resolutions with a variety of search options. 

Voting records are not given in the resolutions. They can be retrieved through UNBISnet using Voting Record Search


Printed Indexes

A printed index to General Assembly resolutions for the given session is published in the final part of the Yearbook of the United Nations. Since October 2008 the complete full text collection of The United Nations Yearbooks is available online at http://unyearbook.un.org/.

Text: Gunnel Torén | Dag Hammarskjöld Library | Latest update: 20/05/2010