The UN Security Council and the Rejection of Draft Resolutions

Abstract This article introduces the first complete record of draft Security Council resolutions and what happened to them. In addition to ca. 2,600 drafts that have been adopted as resolutions and ca. 200 drafts that have been vetoed by one of the permanent members (1946–2021), another ca. 300 draft resolutions have failed to be adopted for other reasons than the veto. The article first presents an overview of the record of draft resolutions. It then turns its attention specifically to drafts that have been rejected by Council majority, i.e. drafts that have failed to receive the required number of positive votes. It relates to previous research on the elected members of the Security Council and illustrates how a concern with rejected drafts provides new insights into the legitimacy of Security Council decision making, discussions about Council reform, and changing working methods.