DOCUMENTS ANCHOR THE REALITY OF UN LIFE

Personal interactions among diplomats are key to the multilateral processes at the United Nations, but only when something is written down does it assume a fixed reality. Consequently, much of the diplomatic work at the UN is focused on drafting politically nuanced texts of resolutions.

To facilitate action by diplomats the Secretariat produces documents explaining the relevant issues.
These documents set the agenda and the programme of work for meetings, and they often serve to focus the attention of delegates on the action necessary. Analytical documents bring important problems to governmental attention and recommend remedial action. Verbatim records, summaries, draft resolutions and decisions reflect what is said and done in deliberative bodies. Over 200 reports a day are produced at UN Headquarters in New York to support the work of approximately 5,500 meetings per year. In addition to parliamentary documentation — much of it in all six official UN languages, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish — the Organization also issues major analytical studies, books, magazines and other public information material aimed at a global audience. A substantial part of this output is freely available on the Optical Disk System accessible through the UN web site.

Purely in terms of process, UN documentation presents a picture of marvellous efficiency. However, in substantive terms, they have significant shortcomings., for the Secretariat is loath to offend powerful governments and groups. As a result, most UN documents pussy-foot around the truth; the worst of them trample on it. Almost any document presented by the Secretariat to the Security Council will illustrate either or both characteristics. For instance, documents dealing with conflicts in resource-rich developing countries and regions are extremely vague about what exactly is happening. Although they dealt with complex situations, they rarely describe them or assess the nature of the conflict. As a rule, none provides information on the historical and political context necessary for a reader to understand what the conflicts are about or why they continue.

The poor quality of information and analysis available to the Security Council has been repeatedly flagged as a reform issue for over two decades. Remedial measures have included the creation of special analytical capacities within the Secretariat, such as the Situation Center and the Lessons Learned Unit, but have not addressed the crux of the problem, and delegations continue to complain.

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