The United Nations System Chart

The United Nations has six principal organs:

Economic and Social Council
General Assembly
International Court of Justice
Secretariat
Security Council
Trusteeship Council

Each has their own subsidiary bodies, programmes, agencies and departments.

United Nations - Ready Reference

Ready reference tools are usually quick and to the point , they're your basic FAQ section on a website. The Dag Hammarskjöld Library created one called UN-I-QUE : United Nations Info Quest ( http://lib-unique.un.org/ ) . Use this to find: acronyms, biographies, commemorative speeches, international observances, reports, strategies, missions and etc.

By typing "Years" into the search bar, UN-I-QUE displays "International Years Proclaimed By the General Assembly", click on the link to display a list of all international years.

2006 is the year of deserts and desertification.

1996 was the year for the eradication of poverty

1986 was the year of international peace

The official web site locator for the United Nations system of organizations

Using this link (http://www.unsystem.org/ ), you should be able to find over 100 links to United Nations' departments and specialized agencies.

If you click on "Thematic Index", located in the left sided frame, you can search by the subject of your choice to find out which UN organization has projects dealing with your topic. For example, if you look under the term "indigenous people", five organizations appear:

1. International Labour Organization (ILO) - Geneva, Switzerland
http://www.ilo.org/

2. International Training Centre of the ILO (ITC/ILO) - Turin, Italy
http://www.itcilo.it/

3. Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) - Geneva,
Switzerland
http://www.ohchr.org

4. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - New York, USA
http://www.undp.org/

5. World Bank Group (WB) - Washington, USA
http://www.worldbank.org/

First you MUST visit!

the United Nations

I work in the UN Documents/International Collections section of an academic library where I have to be able to respond to various inquiries in regards to UN and International documents research. The most basic question that a patron will ask is where can they find United Nations documents.

These are the top 5 websites that I always suggest that they look at:

1. UNIBISNET - http://unbisnet.un.org/
2. ODS - http://documents.un.org/
3. UN Treaties - http://untreaty.un.org/
4. Press Releases - http://www.un.org/News/Press/full.htm
5. UNIQUE - http://lib-unique.un.org/


The UN website is a goldmine of information if you're interested in global issues such as:
-environmental issues
-hunger
-population
-war
-disarmament
-peace