A symbol is a combination of numbers and letters, which serves as a unique identifier for a United Nations document. It generally does not give any significant indication of the subject of a document. All language versions of a document carry the same symbol. The first component usually reflects the parent organ issuing the document or to which the document is being submitted:
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A/- |
General Assembly |
|
S/- |
Security Council |
|
E/- |
Economic and Social Council |
|
ST/- |
Secretariat |
Some exceptions occur in the case of bodies for which a special series symbol has been created not reflecting the parent organ. For example:
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CRC/C/- |
Committee on the Rights of the Child |
|
DP/- |
United Nations Development Programme |
|
TD/- |
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development |
|
UNEP/- |
United Nations Environment Programme |
Secondary and tertiary components indicate subsidiary bodies:
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-/AC. .../- |
Ad hoc committee |
|
-/C. .../- |
Standing/permanent/main committee |
|
-/CN. .../- |
Commission |
|
-/CONF. .../- |
Conference |
|
-/GC. .../- |
Governing council |
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-/PC/. .../- |
Preparatory committee |
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-/SC. .../- |
Subcommittee |
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-/Sub. .../- |
Subcommission |
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-/WG. .../- |
Working group |
Special components reflect the nature of the document:
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-/CRP. ... |
Conference room paper |
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-/INF/- |
Information series (e.g., lists of participants) |
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-/L. ... |
Limited distribution (i.e., generally draft documents) |
|
-/NGO/- |
Statements by non-governmental organizations |
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-/PET/- |
Petitions |
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-/PRST/- |
Statements by the President of the Security Council |
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-/PV. ... |
Verbatim records of meetings (i.e., proces-verbaux) |
|
-/R. ... |
Restricted distribution; restricted access (unless subsequently derestricted) |
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-/RES/- |
Resolutions |
|
-/SR. ... |
Summary records of meetings |
|
-/WP. ... |
Working papers |
The final component, appearing as a suffix to a symbol, reflects modifications to the original text:
|
-/Add. ... |
Addendum |
|
-/Amend. ... |
Alteration, by decision of a competent authority, of a portion of an adopted formal text |
|
-/Corr. ... |
Corrigendum (which may not apply to all language versions) |
|
-/Rev. ... |
Revision (replacing texts previously issued) |
|
-/Summary |
Summarized version |
|
-/-* |
Reissuance of a document for technical reasons |
Examples:
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General Assembly, 55th session, document |
|
|
General Assembly, World Conference on Human Rights, Preparatory Committee, document no. 63, addendum no. 4 |
|
|
Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human Rights, Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, year: 2003, document no. 38, revision no. 2 |
As of the 31st session (1976), the General Assembly began to incorporate the session number into the symbols of its documents (e.g., A/31/99). Similarily in 1978, the Economic and Social Council began incorporating the year into the symbols of its documents (e.g., E/1978/99); the Security Council began doing the same in 1994 (e.g., S/1994/99), with the exception of resolutions and meeting records.
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