Drafting a Resolution: A Workshop
A workshop on drafting UN resolutions: structure, preambular and operative formulas, sponsorship mechanics, and pitfalls that shape Council and Assembly outputs.
The Architecture: One Sentence, Two Halves
A UN resolution is, formally, a single sentence. The subject is the organ ("The Security Council," "The General Assembly"), and every preambular and operative clause is a participial or verbal phrase modifying that subject. This is not stylistic affectation — it reflects the legal fiction that the organ speaks with one voice. UN Editorial Manual conventions, codified in ST/DCS/4 and the Repertory of Practice, require this structure for every resolution issued since the 1946 reforms harmonizing League-era and Dumbarton Oaks drafting habits.
The document divides into two parts. Preambular paragraphs (PPs) recite the legal, factual, and political predicates — recalling prior resolutions, reaffirming Charter principles, expressing concern, taking note of Secretary-General reports. They are not operative law. PPs begin with present participles, italicized in published versions: Recalling, Reaffirming, Noting with concern, Bearing in mind, Welcoming, Deeply deploring. Operative paragraphs (OPs) are numbered, begin with active verbs (also italicized), and constitute the decision itself: Decides, Demands, Calls upon, Requests, Authorizes, Condemns, Endorses.
The Verb Hierarchy and Its Legal Weight
The choice of operative verb is the single most consequential drafting decision. In Security Council practice, Decides under Chapter VII creates binding obligations under Article 25 of the Charter — as the ICJ confirmed in the 1971 Namibia Advisory Opinion (paragraph 113), where the Court held that Article 25 is not confined to Chapter VII decisions but extends to any decision the Council intends to be binding. Demands connotes a binding requirement; Calls upon is hortatory; Urges is weaker still; Encourages is nearly aspirational. Resolution 1373 (2001) used Decides throughout precisely to lock in binding counter-terrorism obligations on all member states. Resolution 2231 (2015), endorsing the JCPOA, was carefully drafted with Endorses and Calls upon in operative paragraphs to avoid creating new Chapter VII obligations beyond those it explicitly preserved.
Authorizes is the peacekeeping and enforcement verb. Resolution 678 (1990) authorized member states cooperating with Kuwait to "use all necessary means" — the formula that has since 1990 signified Chapter VII military authorization. Resolution 1973 (2011) on Libya replicated the phrase to authorize the no-fly zone. Drafters who want enforcement authority without saying "war" reach for this construction; drafters who want to deny it strike the phrase in negotiation.
Requests the Secretary-General is the standard vehicle for tasking the Secretariat — establishing panels of experts, mandating reporting cycles (typically 90, 180, or 365 days), or commissioning good offices. Requests cannot bind member states; it can only task UN organs and officials.
Numbering, Sponsorship, and the Symbol
Resolutions receive a document symbol (e.g., S/RES/2728 (2024) for Council; A/RES/77/247 for the 77th GA session). Draft resolutions circulate as S/2024/XXX or A/C.1/78/L.XX, where the "L" denotes a limited-distribution draft in a Main Committee. Co-sponsorship is registered with the Secretariat before adoption and printed on the final text; in the Council, the penholder (typically a P3 member for thematic files — the UK on Somalia, France on the Sahel, the US on counter-terrorism) controls the initial draft and the silence procedure timeline. Breaking penholdership is rare but consequential: Mexico and France jointly penned Resolution 2532 (2020) on COVID-19 ceasefires, deliberately bypassing the traditional US lead.