Conflict explainer content
How the explainer content is produced
The explainer content is produced from information prepared from official UN Digital Library transcripts. These transcripts are public records of United Nations meetings and debates. Before the page text is generated, relevant material from those records is extracted, organized, and made available in a form that supports clear explanations for a defined set of public questions.
This content is not intended to replace the original UN records. Its role is to help users understand what the transcripts say in plain language.
How the content stays grounded
Each piece of content is generated within a controlled scope. The page presents material for a fixed set of questions, and the text is generated from processed transcript-based information rather than from open-ended internet browsing or personal opinion.
This approach helps reduce unsupported statements in several ways:
- The source material comes from official UN Digital Library transcripts.
- The questions are predefined, so the generated content serves a specific explanatory purpose.
- The writing style is designed for public explanation, not speculation or legal interpretation.
- When the available transcript-based information is insufficient, the content should avoid presenting guesses as facts.
What users can trust
Users can trust that the generated content is built to reflect information found in the source material and to explain it in accessible terms. The goal is to make complex UN records easier to explore while keeping the page text connected to the underlying transcripts.
At the same time, this content should be understood as an explanatory aid. For formal citation, official interpretation, or detailed verification, users should consult the original UN Digital Library records.
Why this matters
UN transcripts can be long, technical, and difficult to compare across meetings. This methodology helps users access the substance of those records more easily. The generated content is kept within a limited, source-based framework so users can benefit from clearer explanations without losing sight of the official records behind it.
Meeting and Resolution Summaries
How meeting and resolution summaries are produced
Our content starts from publicly available United Nations Digital Library records, including official Security Council meeting transcripts. These source documents remain the reference material behind the summaries we provide.
When a transcript is processed, the text is prepared so that meeting information, speakers, and individual interventions can be handled consistently. The system then generates concise summaries from the transcript content. The goal is to make long diplomatic records easier to read, compare, and explore while preserving the meaning of what was said.
The summaries are machine generated and produced under human supervision. This means automated tools help process and summarize the documents, while publication remains part of an operator-managed workflow with checks before content is made available.
How we keep the content grounded
The summaries are based on the text of the UN records, not on outside commentary or unrelated sources. The process is designed to summarize what appears in the transcript, not to add new claims, opinions, or interpretations.
Each summarized item remains associated with source metadata such as the meeting, date, speaker information when available, and document identifier. This helps keep the content traceable back to the original UN record.
The workflow also includes quality controls. Content that is empty, unsuitable, malformed, or not meaningful enough for publication can be rejected or held back for review. Updates and corrections can be processed again when needed.
Multilingual summaries
Multilingual versions are created from the prepared summaries, so each language version is tied to the same underlying source content. The purpose of translation is to make the same information accessible to more readers, not to create different versions of the analysis for different languages.
What readers should keep in mind
These summaries are intended as a practical guide to United Nations Security Council debates. They do not replace the official UN record, and they do not contain everything said during a meeting.
The United Nations transcript remains the authoritative reference. Our role is to make that material easier to navigate and understand.
This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or representative of the United Nations.
Signals and Dashboard Statistics
How signals are produced
The application analyzes official records from the UN Digital Library, including Security Council meeting transcripts, meeting coverage, and resolutions. These documents are processed to identify the countries, actors, themes, events, and policy topics discussed in the text.
From this source material, the system produces structured signals such as civilian risk, severity, escalation trend, and dashboard statistics. These signals are based on what is stated in the UN record. They should be understood as indicators from UN discourse, not as independent verification of conditions on the ground.
How signals stay grounded
Each signal starts from a source document. The system looks for language in the document that supports the signal, then maps that language to a stable set of categories and rating scales. This helps keep the outputs consistent across countries, issues, and time periods.
Ratings are kept conservative when the text is procedural, vague, mixed, or does not clearly support a stronger conclusion. For example, a resolution that only renews a mandate should not by itself produce a high severity or civilian risk rating unless the document also describes harm, threats, displacement, humanitarian crisis, or similar evidence.
Supporting excerpts from the source documents are retained as evidence for the extracted signals. This allows the signals to be traced back to the language that produced them.
How to read the ratings
Civilian risk reflects the level of risk to civilians indicated by the language in the processed UN document. It is influenced by references to civilian harm, humanitarian access, famine or disease risk, displacement, and related concerns.
Severity reflects the seriousness of harm, instability, or crisis described in the document. A higher severity rating means the source text contains stronger language about serious or widespread harm.
Escalation trend reflects whether the document indicates that a situation is worsening, improving, stable, unclear, or not discussed. It is based on the direction implied by the text, not on a forecast.
How to read dashboard statistics
Dashboard statistics summarize patterns found in the processed UN records. Counts of meetings, resolutions, events, themes, policies, co-mentioned countries, and actors represent how often those items appear or are classified in the analyzed documents.
These statistics are useful for understanding what is being discussed in UN records and how that discussion changes over time. They should not be read as direct counts of real-world incidents, casualties, or verified events unless the underlying source document explicitly provides that information.
Important limitations
The signals are grounded in official UN documents, but UN documents do not capture every event and may reflect the priorities, wording, and political context of the UN process. The ratings therefore estimate what the processed UN records indicate. They may not fully reflect the reality on the ground.
The methodology is designed to provide consistent, traceable, and cautious indicators. It is not a substitute for field reporting, legal findings, humanitarian assessments, or expert conflict analysis.