The United Nations Treaty Collection (https://treaties.un.org) contains information regarding the activities of the Treaty Section of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, as follows:
Information relating to the depositary functions of the Secretary-General in respect of over 560 multilateral treaties, including participation, communications and entry into force.
Information relating to the registration and publication of treaties in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations, including data regarding each treaty registered with the Secretariat and the full text of the United Nations Treaty Series.
Publications and documents prepared by the Treaty Section aimed at providing guidance and information with regard to participation in multilateral treaties, the drafting of treaties, the depositary practice of the Secretary-General, and the registration and publication of treaties.
Information on trainings and legal technical assistance provided by the Treaty Section.
Information on the annual Treaty Event organised by the Secretary-General, held in parallel with the general debate of the General Assembly, as well as on special events on specific treaties. Such events are intended to facilitate the participation of States in the multilateral treaty framework.
More detailed information on what is available in each of these sections can be found below or on the Overview page.
You can access information relating to the depositary functions of the Secretary-General in respect of over 560 multilateral treaties in the Depositary section of this website.
The Status of Treaties page within the Depositary section, which replaces the prior annual publication entitled Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General, provides authoritative and up-to-date information on the status of each of the treaties deposited with the Secretary-General, including:
In the Depositary section, you can also access Certified True Copies of each treaty deposited with the Secretary-General, photos of treaty ceremonies and model instruments to be used by Member States when completing actions in relation to those treaties. This section also provides information on treaties deposited with the Secretary-General of the League of Nations.
In order to receive depositary notifications relating to actions (i.e. signatures, ratifications, accessions, declarations, etc.) effected in relation to treaties deposited with the Secretary-General you need to sign up to the Automated Subscription Services. To learn more about the Automated Subscription Services, please refer to the information given below.
The Automated Subscription Services allow any individual or organization to register to automatically receive depositary notifications issued in relation to treaties deposited with the Secretary-General, and other notifications relating to the work of the Treaty Section of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs.
Once registered, you can select to receive either all depositary notifications circulated by the Secretary-General or only specific categories of depositary notifications (e.g. notifications relating to actions effected by a specific State or in relation to a specific treaty or treaties in a specific area). These notifications are sent to the e-mail address you provided and, in most cases, will be sent on the day on which the relevant action is effected.
To register to receive depositary notifications:
1. Visit the Automated Subscription Services page; 2. Select 'New User Registration'; 3. Complete and Submit the Registration Form; 4. Following successful submission of the Registration Form, log into the Automated Subscription Services using your chosen username and password; 5. Select the type of subscription you would like to receive.
For a more detailed overview of how to register for Automated Subscription Services please access the user guide.
Depositary notifications that have already been circulated are available on the website, on the Depositary Notifications page. Select the tab 'Search Notifications' and search for specific depositary notifications using a variety of fields including date, notification number, participant, or the code of the treaty to which the notification relates.
To obtain a list of all multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General to which a specific State is a signatory or party: 1. Visit the 'Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General' page in the Depositary Section of this website; 2. Select the 'Participant Search' tab; 3. Select the relevant Participant from the drop-down menu and click 'Search'. Having followed these steps, you will be presented with a full list of the treaties to which the selected State is a signatory or party. You can export this information to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet by clicking on the 'Export to Excel' link in the top right of the page.
You can access photos of treaty ceremonies conducted in relation to treaties deposited with the Secretary-General by visiting the Photos of Treaty Ceremonies page in the Depositary section of this website. On this page, you can see the photos of the most recent treaty ceremonies or you can use the search functions to find photos of earlier ceremonies.
You can access model instruments of full powers, ratification, accession etc. by visiting the Model Instruments page in the Resources section of this website. On that page, each model instrument is provided in each of the six official languages of the United Nations.
Yes. You can access information on multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General of the League of Nations by visiting the League of Nations Treaties page in the Depositary section of this website. On that page, you can access information on the thirty-three multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General of the League of Nations, including information on actions effected by States subsequent to the assumption of depositary functions by the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
You can access information relating to the registration and publication of treaties in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations in the Registration and Publication section of this website.
On the United Nations Treaty Series page, you can access information on all treaties and treaty actions published in the United Nations Treaty Series volumes, as well as information on treaties and treaty actions that have been registered but not yet published in the Treaty Series. In total, the database contains information on over 250,000 treaties and treaty actions and includes the texts of treaties in their authentic language(s), along with translations into English and French. In the same section, you can also access issues of the Monthly Statement prepared by the Treaty Section and offering details on the treaties registered each month, checklist and technical guidelines to be used by Member States when submitting treaties for registration, and a summary of the limited publication policy applicable to some categories of treaties.
You can find a specific treaty registered with the Secretariat by going to the United Nations Treaty Series page in the Registration and Publication section of this website. On this page, you can search for a specific treaty by applying a wide range of search criteria including date of conclusion, participant, title, registration number, or subject term.
Monthly Statements provide a summary of all treaties and treaty actions registered with the Secretariat of the United Nations within a specific calendar month. You can access all Monthly Statements produced by the Secretariat by visiting the Monthly Statements page in the Registration and Publication section of this website.
You can access a range of resources and publications produced by the Treaty Section to assist States and other actors to better understand and participate in the international treaty framework by going to the Resources section of this website. The publications and resources available include:
You can access information regarding the capacity-building and training provided by the Treaty Section by visiting the Training section of this website.
In that section, you will find information on the training activities of the Treaty Section, both at United Nations Headquarters in New York and at the regional level. In addition, information is provided in this section on the legal technical assistance activities conducted by the Treaty Section including assistance provided to States and international organizations in the submission of key legal instruments to the Secretary-General such as instruments of ratification and accession, the submission of treaties for registration and the drafting of final clauses to multilateral treaties.
You can access information regarding the annual Treaty Event by visiting the Treaty Events section of the website. In this section, you will find a summary of the upcoming annual treaty event with additional documentation including the letter sent by the Secretary-General to the Heads of States and Government inviting them to participate in the Event, procedural information by the United Nations Legal Counsel to Permanent Representatives in New York, and a list of treaties highlighted in the Treaty Event.
In the Treaty Events section, you can also find information on past annual treaty events and on the special events facilitated by the Treaty Section in relation to specific treaties (i.e., opening for signature).
The website is updated on a daily basis.