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Tags
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Clause History
Legal Values
Addressees
Information Types
Document Types

Tags are non-hierarchical keywords or terms assigned to documents and clauses. This kind of metadata helps describe the information available on ResolutionFinder.org and it allows it to be found again by browsing. The tagging list has been open so far and the choice to assign particular tags to each clause and document has been done by the researchers who completed the process of extracting and classifying the clauses. All the tags currently available on ResolutionFinder.org are part of the UN lingo (i.e. words and expressions from UN documents in their initial form).

The document and clause search allows for both a free search as well as a search by tag and document code. The tag search is meant to help the user find the desired results by suggesting tags assigned to the clauses and documents. Especially the search for clauses will usually yield a significant number of results which can then be narrowed down using the filters provided by ResolutionFinder.org. Filtering by document code is a very effective way for experts to filter out non related documents.

Support for complex queries allows users to specify their search preferences in the search box, by asking deliberately including/excluding particular information from the results or to look for specific phrases. Phrases are enclosed in double quotes ('"'), inclusion is made prefixing with plus sign ("+"), exclusion is made prefixing with a minus sign ("-"). For instance the following search will list all the results containing the phrase "security council" and the word "africa", but which do not include the word "regional": "security council" +africa -regional

Here is an example search that searches for clauses:

text matching: "security council" +africa -regional
tagged with: malaria
document code starting with: A/RES

The history of the clause aims to illustrate the evolution of clauses from within follow-up documents (documents which have been adopted several years in a row). The clause history underlines all the modifications brought to a particular clause throughout the years at a linguistic level.

In order to determine the legal value of a document we only use formal criteria. We distinguish between legally binding documents, non legally binding documents and Security Council resolutions.

Legally binding

For legally binding documents ResolutionFinder considers multilateral conventions of potential universal adherence registered with the UN in accordance with Art. 102 of the UN Charter or deposited with the Secretary-General of the UN. In order to show whether a document has reached the minimum ratification count yet, we mark legally binding documents in force or not in force differently.

Non legally binding

Non legally binding are all those documents that have been negotiated by states and are also addressed to them, but are not by their form legally binding. Non-legally binding agreements consequently encompass international agreements negotiated under the auspices of the UN at global summits and other multilateral gatherings. They also cover UN resolutions passed by the main United Nations organs and their subsidiary bodies, as well as recommendations, regulations, plans of actions and other types of agreements issued by Specialised and Related Agencies.

SC resolutions

Security Council resolutions are left out of the above classification into legally binding or non legally binding documents. While they constitute UN agreements, they cannot be classified into a category merely by their form. Therefore, ResolutionFinder.org has refrained from assigning them a legal value, and provisions from Security Council resolutions are marked differently, so as to make the specific nature of these agreements visible.

Agreements not negotiated within the UN system

As a general rule, Jungle Drum does not consider international agreements from outside the UN system. However, evaluation of the research showed that there are certain agreements not issued within the UN system that are nevertheless connected to the UN. These are documents that are negotiated by states, and additionally are either global in nature (i.e. negotiated in a multilateral forum outside of the UN system) or have been recalled in a UN agreement (i.e. they have been processed to the UN by the relevant regional authority by way of an annex to a letter, and have been assigned a UN document number). These documents were also included into Jungle Drum's UN Agreements research.

The addressee of a given clause is the person, organisation or group of states the clause is directed to:

All Member States
Group of States
International Community
UN Secretary General
UN Organ
Private Sector
Civil Society
"Major groups"
Regional Organizations
Multilateral Organizations
Organizations
National Organizations
Other

Because agreements that are legally binding by form sometimes contain quite indeterminate language, and in turn, provisions from agreements that are by form non-legally binding may be supported by a large number of states to such a degree that they might amount to legally binding norms. Such cases are usually difficult to identify, and often disputed. Classification via abstract criteria cannot take into account such disputed cases. Consequently, ResolutionFinder assigns information types in order to classify documents independently from their legal value. We distinguish between the following information types:

Commitments made by states

Commitments made by states are understood as clauses from UN agreements containing measures that need to be carried out by states. The addressee of such a clause thus needs to be the states themselves. From a legal point of view, it could be contested that such clauses reflect a legally relevant agreement, since they technically reflect the view of the respective issuing organ. However, the fact that the issuing organ is in fact composed of state representatives needs to be taken into consideration: Regardless of any legal qualification, clauses adopted by states and addressed at states can be considered as a commitment on a political level. Commitments made by states are divided into national level and international level, depending on whether the measure needs to be implemented domestically or regionally/globally.

Further recommendations for implementation

While a large amount of clauses contain measures to be undertaken by states, they are not necessarily commitments in the sense that they merely recommend action to states. Such clauses are considered as constituting further recommendations for implementation.

requests to UN institution

Clauses addressed to an organ within the UN System, i.e. such clauses that specifically address the part of the UN System (be it an organ of an international organization, or specific parts of the various Secretariats of international organizations), have been defined as requests to UN institution.

Request and recommendations to actors other than states

Clauses addressed to actors other than states are split into requests and recommendations to actors other than states. Due to the great diversity of language used when determining the addressee, no further differentiation as to the term actors other than states is used.

Document Type	Legal Value
Treaty/Convention/Covenant	Legally binding
Protocol to Convention	Legally binding
Declaration	Non-legally binding
Plan of action	Non-legally binding
GA Resolution	Non-legally binding
SC Resolution	ResolutionFinder.org does not assign a legal value to SC Resolutions
Decision	Non-legally binding
Recommendation	Non-legally binding
Conclusion	Non-legally binding
Presidential Statement	Non-legally binding

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