United Nations diplomacy runs on a specialised vocabulary. This independent glossary defines the terms you will meet most often across this site and in the news, in plain English. For official definitions and usage, the UN Charter and un.org are the primary references.
People and posts
- Permanent Representative — the ambassador who heads a member state's permanent mission at the UN.
- Permanent mission — the standing diplomatic office a member state maintains at UN headquarters to conduct its business.
- Chargé d'affaires — the official who leads a mission or embassy in the ambassador's absence.
- Credentials — the formal documents accrediting a diplomat or delegation; a Credentials Committee verifies them at each Assembly session.
- Secretary-General — the UN's chief administrative officer, who heads the Secretariat.
Bodies and groupings
- General Assembly (GA) — the plenary body of all 193 member states, each with one vote.
- Security Council (SC) — the 15-member organ responsible for international peace and security.
- ECOSOC — the Economic and Social Council, coordinating the UN's development work.
- Main Committees — the six standing committees of the General Assembly (First through Sixth), each handling a cluster of issues.
- P5 — the five permanent members of the Security Council.
- Regional and political groups — blocs such as the African Group, the Arab Group, the Group of 77, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), through which states coordinate.
Process and instruments
- Resolution — a formal expression of a body's will; binding when adopted by the Security Council under Chapter VII, otherwise usually a recommendation.
- Veto — the power of any P5 member to block a substantive Security Council decision.
- Chapter VI / Chapter VII — the Charter provisions on peaceful settlement of disputes and on enforcement action, respectively.
- Candidature — a state's campaign for election to a UN organ or for one of its nationals to a committee seat.
- Consensus — adoption of a decision without a formal vote, by general agreement.
- Universal Periodic Review (UPR) — the peer review of every state's human-rights record by the Human Rights Council.
Careers and people development
- YPP — the Young Professionals Programme, the UN Secretariat's entry examination for early-career professionals.
- JPO — a Junior Professional Officer, funded by a sponsoring government for two years of UN experience.
- Geographical representation — the principle that Secretariat posts should be spread across nationalities, giving under-represented states an edge.
- P-level / G-level — the professional and general-service grades in the UN staff system.
Meet a term we have missed? The definitions here are starting points; for the full picture, follow the outbound links throughout our explainer on how the UN works and the resources page.