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UN Member States: On the Record

November 19, 2009 · Marylin J. Raisch

The United Nations has released a research tool, UN Member States: On the Record , which aggregates UN members states' documentation in a really helpful way, and in a manner more substantive than the kind of research that young students often perform for their "Model UN" exercises and the like. Susan Kurtas of the Legal Branch Library of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library describes its purpose as follows:

"It links to selected UN databases, websites, and other information resources to make the record of Member States' activities at the UN more accessible. There are no new resources here--  just links to exisiting resources that have been dispersed around the UN website for years.  Information available for each Member State includes: the key documents related to its membership in the UN; statements made before the principal organs; draft resolutions sponsored; periodic reports submitted on Human Rights conventions, and more. Running behind this new research tool are pre-set searches on multiple databases maintained by the UN Libraries and other Secretariat departments.  A single click links to the most accurate, up-to date results, and yet also includes extensive historic coverage.  Full text documents are linked in all official languages of the UN."

So for example if you select member state Nigeria, you bring up a page with links to the full texts (unless not available electronically anywhere at the UN yet; if not it gives one a bibliographic record) of the original resolutions granting the country UN membership, statements their representatives made in plenary meetings (from the Index to Speeches database), their participation in the Security Council (which rotates over time) , draft resolutions they sponsored,  periodic reports to the human rights treaty bodies, and biographies of their credentialed representatives. It save a huge amount of time over searching it all  oneself.

Tags: International · Research

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