Citation Guide

Citing a UN document

When citing references, you should always follow a certain style and it also applies to documents from the UN. There are many different techniques and they vary in what is required.

In general it is recommended that you write the document title and document symbol. When you quote include either page numbers or paragraphs. If you are quoting from the internet some styles require that the URL of the document is given, as well as date when the web page was viewed.

The UN Library in New York, Dag Hammarskjöld Library, recommends The Bluebook. It provides a guide to how to refer to different types of documents. The book is available at the Dag Hammarskjöld and the Law Library, Uppsala.

Citing the Charter of the United Nations

Here are two examples of how to cite the UN Charter.

 Book cover Charter of the United NationsExample 1:

  1. List the author or organization responsible for the document, followed by a comma. In this case, that would be the United Nations.
  2. List the title of the document in italics, followed by a comma. In this case, the title would be Charter of the United Nations.
  3. List the date of publication, followed by a comma. In this case, the date of publication is October 24, 1945. It is acceptable to list the year of publication only.
  4. List the document symbol, followed by a comma. In this case, the document symbol is "1 UNTS XVI."
  5. List the URL or web address where you accessed the document.
  6. List the date you accessed the document in brackets.
  7. Ensure that the citation appears in the following format. Don't forget to italicize the title, and to put the date of access in brackets:
  8. United Nations, Charter of the United Nations, 1945, 1 UNTS XVI, available at: http://www.website.com [accessed 4 June 2005]

Read more at How to Reference the UN Charter | eHow.

Example 2:

Refer to the UN Charter in APA format, Citing the Charter of the United Nations.

Citing references - manuals