Contents

General tips Steps in researching UN instruments Finding basic information about UN instruments

The UN Yearbook Finding articles in the Yearbooks Identifying related documents Locating UN materials on campus Finding the US stand on an instrument

UN sales publications Citing UN materials Using UN materials from the Government Documents Collection

General tips

Following these tips may save you some time and frustration!

• Give yourself lots of time to work with UN materials. Don't wait until the last minute to do your research!

• Want more info on how to use UN documents and publications? See the following:

  Web page: United Nations Documentation: Research Guide, by the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Library.

  URL: http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/index.html

  Book: UN Documentation: A Basic Guide, by Marian Shaaban and Robert Goehlert. Occasional Paper No. 16; Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana Center on Global Change and World Peace, 1993.

  Location: Memorial Reference Stacks, JX 1977 S52 1992

• Want definitions or explanations of terms related to human rights instruments (for example, "ratify," "entry into force," "declaration")? See the following:

  Web page: United Nations Treaty Collection: Treaty Reference Guide. Begins with definitions of nine key terms in no discernable order, followed by a "Glossary of Terms Relating to Treaty Actions," with 23 terms in alphabetical order. You may want to use your browser's "Find" command (usually under the "Edit" menu) to see if a particular term is defined here.

  URL: http://untreaty.un.org/English/guide.asp

  Book chapter: "An Overview of Terms" International Instruments of the United Nations: A Compilation of Agreements, Charters, Conventions, Declarations, Principles, Proclamations, Protocols, Treaties, Adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, 1945-1995, edited and compiled by Irving Sarnoff. [New York:] United Nations, 1997 (UN Sales No. E.96.I.15), pp. xiii-xvii.

  Location: Memorial Reference Stacks, K 3238 I58 1997

Steps in researching UN instruments

1. Find basic information about the instrument (i.e. the covenant, convention, declaration).
2. Use the UN Yearbook to...
   • Find historical background on the instrument, and
   • Identify related documents.
3. Locate related documents on campus.
4. Determine the United States' stand on the instrument.

1.   Finding basic information about UN instruments

The resources listed below are starting places for finding basic information about UN instruments. If you're unable to find what you need in these sources, please ask a reference librarian for help.

• United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights' page on International Human Rights Instruments.
  • URL: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/intlinst.htm
  • Includes:
    • Full text of over 100 international human rights instruments, adopted by the UN, UNESCO, and ILO.
    • Year of adoption (should be in the introduction to the text of instrument).
    • Links to status of ratifications, and any reservations and declarations made by participants when they signed for UN conventions.
    • Arranged: by subject. (Hint: to search this page for your instrument, use the "Find" or "Find in page" function of your browser, sometimes under the "Edit" menu.)

• United Nations Treaty Collection
• URL: http://www.library.wisc.edu/reslist.search/search.cgi?id=untreaty (Also available from the "E-Books, E-Texts, and Multimedia" section of the Libraries Web Site.)
• Includes:
  • Full text of UN treaties.
  • Lists of the participants in each treaty.
  • Date that each participant signed and ratified the treaty.
  • Any declarations and reservations made by participants when they signed.
• Has the following restrictions:
  • Requires a user name and password to see articles.
  • Limited to one user at a time. Please log off the database when you are done.
  • The User Name and Password provided are licensed for current students, faculty and staff of the University of Wisconsin-Madison ONLY.

If you cannot find the full text of the instrument or the ratification information online, you can check the following print resources.

Print resources for texts of instruments

• Collection of International Instruments and Other Legal Texts Concerning Refugees and Displaced Persons, Volume 1: Universal Instruments. Geneva: Division of the International Protection of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1995 (UN Sales No. GV.E.96.0.2).
  • Location: Memorial Reference Stacks, K 3230 R45 A265 1995 v.1
  • Section II covers human rights.
  • Arranged: by subject.

• Lewis, James R., and Carl Skutsch. The Human Rights Encyclopedia. Armonk, NY: Sharpe Reference, [2001]. 3 v.
  • Location: Memorial Reference Stacks, JC 571 H865 2001
  • Includes:
    • Full text of 20 UN human rights instruments, in Volume 3, Appendix A.
    • Entries on the state of human rights in individual countries.
    • Entries on human rights issues.
    • List and brief descriptions of selected human rights organizations, in Volume 3, Appendix B.
    • Brief glossary.
  • Arranged: alphabetically. The first section covers countries; the second covers individuals and issues; and the appendices include full texts of instruments.

• Lawson, Edward. Encyclopedia of Human Rights. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1996.
  • Location: Memorial Reference Stacks, JC 571 E67 1996
  • Includes:
    • Brief descriptions of many UN instruments.
    • Some entries include the full text of a particular instrument.
    • Descriptions of other human rights instruments and organizations, and the human rights situation in 186 countries and territories.
    • Bibliography for each entry.
    • Some entries include recent developments related to the instrument (for example, reports from UN rapporteurs or commissions).
    • Some entries describe the ways by which organizations and governments promote, monitor, and supervise the implementation of a particular instrument.
    • Glossary.
  • Arranged: Alphabetically.
    • Documents dealing with specific aspects of human rights are entered under the aspect with which they deal. For example, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is entered under Children's Rights: Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General: Status as at 31 December 2003. New York: United Nations, 2003. 2 volumes.
  • Location: Memorial Reference Stacks, JX 171 U372 v.2003
  • This will almost always be less current than the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights page, described above.
  • Includes:
    • Citations to the full text of treaties deposited with the UN's Secretary General, not the full text of treaties.
    • Lists of the participants in each treaty as of December 31, 2003.
    • Date that each participant signed and ratified the treaty.
    • Any "declarations and reservations" made by participants when they signed.
  • Arrangement: Part I (which starts in Volume One and continues to Volume Two) covers UN treaties. Part I arranged by topic into 28 chapters; treaties organized chronologically within chapters.

2.   The UN Yearbook

The Yearbook of the United Nations (New York: United Nations, Department of Public Information; published annually) is the best source for background information on a given UN instrument. It includes:

Summaries of what the UN and related bodies did in a given year; and References to related documents.

Location: Memorial Reference Stacks, JX 1977 A37 Y4

Identifying related documents mentioned in Yearbook articles

• Related documents include verbatim or summary minutes of meetings where the issue or instrument was discussed, letters, agendas, amendments, or plans of action.
• References to related documents will be...
  • Included in the text (in yearbooks from late 1940's and early 1950's); or
  • At the end of the main entry.
• Related documents will be Official Records of plenary or committee meetings or mimeographed documents.
  

  Official Records

  • Recognizing Official Records - examples of references
    • Listing, at the end of the article, of the UN body (General Assembly or Economic & Social Council; Committee or Plenary), session number, and meeting number.

      General Assembly—34th session Third Committee, meetings 3, 70-73 Plenary meeting 107

    • Reference within the article to the UN body and meeting number.

      “The General Assembly considered the draft Convention at the 474th to 481st meetings of its Third Committee…and at its 408th and 409th plenary meetings…” (UN Yearbook, 1952, p.481).

    • Document symbols (strings of letters, numbers, and publications) with PV (indicates verbatim minutes) or SR (indicates summary records) in them.

      Document symbol	What it means
      A/34/PV.107	General Assembly/34th session/Verbatim record for plenary meeting 107)
      A/C.3/34/SR.70	General Assembly/3rd Committee/34th session/Summary record for committee meeting number 70

  • What Official Records are
    • Records of what is said and done by the UN's main organs (main deliberative bodies of the UN).
    • General Assembly and Economic and Social Council are the organs that most often deal with human rights' and women's issues.
    • Include minutes or summaries of regular and committee meetings; annual reports; resolutions.
    • Up to four kinds of volumes within the Official Records:
      1. Plenary/Meetings: Verbatim minutes or summary records of plenary meetings. A plenary meeting may focus on one agenda item, or issue, or include discussion of multiple agenda items. (Each major issue a main organ takes up is given an agenda number at the start of the session, and that agenda number is referred to throughout the session.)
      2. Committee: Verbatim minutes or summary records of committee meetings.
      3. Annexes reprint some of the important documents used in the discussion of agenda items of each session.
      4. Supplements include the annual reports of UN subsidiary organs (commissions, committees), and the resolutions, budget, and financial reports of each session.
  

  Mimeographed documents

  • Recognizing mimeographed documents
    Mimeographed documents are assigned document symbols--strings of letters, numbers, and punctuation--that serve as "call numbers." For an explanation of how symbols work, see http://www.library.wisc.edu/guides/govdocs/un/UN_Documents.htm#UNDocumentSymbols
    Some document symbols and what they mean:

    Document symbol	What it means
    A/34/60	General Assembly/34th session/60th document of that session
    A/C.3/34/14	General Assembly's/Third Committee/34th session/14th document of that session
    E/DEC/1995/252	Economic and Social Council/Decision/issued in 1995/252nd decision for that year

  • What mimeographed documents are
    • Photocopies of documents used or produced in the day-to-day work of UN bodies. They're meant to serve as temporary records.
    • Also known as "photo-offset" or "masthead" documents.
    • Each mimeographed document assigned a "document symbol" for identifying purposes.
    • Include agendas; draft records of meetings; drafts of statements; plans; letters.
    • Sometimes later incorporated into the Official Records of UN organs.
    • Memorial receives many, but not all mimeographed documents. In particular, we don't receive:
      • Documents marked "L" for limited distribution (we do get a few).
      • Documents marked "R" for restricted distribution. Not released to the public.

3. Locating Official Records and mimeographed documents on campus

• At Memorial Library
  • 1946-present (paper; very few from the 1990's): Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisles 3-5
  • 1946-1974 (micro-print): United Nations Publications. Memorial Microforms/Media Center, Room 443; call number "Micro- print 15"
    • It is not possible to make photocopies of documents in this format.
  • 1997-2001 (micro-fiche): Memorial Microforms/Media Center, Room 443, Micro Fiche 6246
    • It is possible to make photocopies of documents in this format.

• Online
  • The UN web site has session documents and verbatim records of the General Assembly plenary meetings available on line from the 55th session (2000-2001) onward.
    • Go to the page for the General Assembly's 59th session, http://www.un.org/ga/59/
    • Move your cursor on top of "Documentation." Highlight either "Session Documents" or "Verbatim Records," and then click on the session you'd like.

  • UNBISnet: UN Bibliographic Information System (http://unbisnet.un.org)
  • Full text: Links to the full-text of many documents published starting in 1993. Full-text resolutions from the General Assembly and Economic and Social Council starting with 1946.
  • Full bibliographic citations from 1979 to present: for sales publications, selected periodical articles, Official Records, and mimeographed documents from UN bodies and committees, and for commercial and other non-UN sources held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library.
    Includes citations to speeches made in...
    • The General Assembly, starting with its 38th session (1983-),
    • The Economic and Social Council, starting in 1983.
  • Searching: Has separate searches for each of three databases.
    1. Bibliographic records
       • Can search over 20 specific fields, including title, subject, and document symbol/sales number.
       • Can limit search by type of material, language, and publication date (among other criteria).
    2. Voting records
    3. Index to speeches
       • Can search citations to speeches made in the General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, and Security Council, all from 1983 onward. Links to the full text of speeches are provided.
       • Can search by meeting record [document] symbol, speaker, country/organization, subject, or speech date.
       • Can limit search by action body or speech date.
  (For more information, see http://www.library.wisc.edu/guides/govdocs/un/indexes.htm#unbis)
  • The UN's ODS (Official Documents System) database, http://documents.un.org/welcome.asp?language=E
    • Most full-text documents in ODS are from 1993 onwards.
    • Includes full-text resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards.
    • Does not contain press releases, UN sales publications, or the United Nations Treaty Series.

  • AccessUN (For more information, see http://www.library.wisc.edu/guides/govdocs/un/indexes.htm#L)

• At the Law School Library
  • Selected documents from 1992 to the present in a microfiche set called United Nations Documents and Publications. Law Library Collection.
  • Collection includes official records and working documents from the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Security Council, Trusteeship Council, and the International Court of Justice.
  • Location, Law Library: Law Library Microforms Collection, 2nd Floor West, Cabinet 35-36
  • Please have the year as well as the document symbol when looking for documents in this collection.
  • It is possible to make photocopies of documents in this format.
  • Location and hours of Law Library: see http://library.law.wisc.edu/information/

For more information on finding and using these materials, see Locating United Nations Documents at UW-Madison's Memorial Library: Documents in the Official Records, http://www.library.wisc.edu/guides/govdocs/un/official_records.htm

Mimeographed documents are...

• At Memorial Library
  • 1946-1974 (micro-print): United Nations Publications. Memorial Microforms/Media Center, Room 443; call number "Micro- print 15"
    • It is not possible to make photocopies from documents in this format.
  • 1975-present (paper): Government Documents Collection, Stack Level 2M South, aisles 0-1
  • 1997-2001 (microfiche): United Nations Documents and Publications. Microforms/Media Center, Room 443, Micro Fiche 6246
    • It is possible to make photocopies from documents in this format.

• Online
  • Some recent documents can be found on UN web sites. See the chart at http://www.library.wisc.edu/guides/govdocs/un/un_documents.htm#WherelookUN

  • UNBISnet (http://unbisnet.un.org/) (For more information, see above.)

  • The UN's ODS (Official Documents System) database, http://documents.un.org/welcome.asp?language=E (For more information, see above.)

  • AccessUN (For more information, see http://www.library.wisc.edu/guides/govdocs/un/indexes.htm#L)