The United Nations (U.N.) is an "intergovernmental organization" which was founded after World War II. The UN Charter provides the purposes and principles of the United Nations. Nearly all nations are now members of the U.N. The six principal institutions of the United Nations are:

• General Assembly -the main body, where deliberation and discussion take place. All members of the UN have the right to participate. The decisions of the Assembly are not legally binding, but they "carry the weight of world opinion on major international issues."
• Security Council - is the U.N. body with the responsibility of maintaining "international peace and security in accordance with the principles and purposes of the United Nations." There are fifteen member-nations on the Security Council: five permanent members (the U.S., the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, China, and France), plus ten nations elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.
• Economic and Social Council - is "the principal organ to coordinate the economic, social, and related work of the United Nations and the specialized agencies and institutions." The Economic and Social Council has 54 members, elected for three-year terms by the General Assembly.
• Secretariat - carries out the day-to-day administrative work of the UN.
• International Court of Justice - the principal judicial body of the United Nations, it settles legal disputes submitted to it by states in accordance with international law, and gives advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized international organs and agencies.

The U.N. has a role in the development and promotion of treaties dealing with important issues. Members of the U.N. are required to register all treaties with the U.N. In essences, the U.N. acts as a depository for treaties of its member-nations. All treaties registered with the U.N. are published in the United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS).

The status of multilateral treaties can be checked in the U.N. publication, Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary General. This publication contains information such as the dates in force, place and date of signing, and citations to the text. This also has information about which countries signed the treaty, which ratified the treaty, as well as any reservations by the signatories of the treaty.

FINDING UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION

Information about the United Nations and its work can also be found in the following publications:

• The Encyclopedia of the United Nations (KZ 4968 .O84 2003 - Reference). Contains encyclopedic entries on many UN topics and organizations.
• The Yearbook of the United Nations (JZ 4947 .U55). Contains summaries of the yearly work of the UN and includes citations to relevant documents issued in that year.
• The UN Web page contains a vast amount of information and news related to the UN and its operations

UN DOCUMENT INDEXES

Over the years there have been several different official document indexes. These include:

UNDI: United Nations Document Index (ST/LIB/SER.E/- )
Covers documents from 1950 to 1973.

UNDEX: United Nations Documents Index (ST/LIB/SER.I/- )
Covers documents from 1974 to 1978.

UNDOC: (ST/LIB/SER.M/- )
Covers documents from 1979 to 1996 .

United Nations Document Checklist: (ST/LIB/SER.M/120-T/LIB/SER.M/CUM.18)
Published in March 1999, this index covers the period between the cessation of UNDOC and the issuance of the new index (October 1996-December 1997).

United Nations Documents Index (ST/LIB/SER.N/- ). Since 1998, this has been the global index of all UN documents. Indexed by the Dag Hammarskjold Library and the UN Library in Geneva , it provides subject access to an extensive body of documents issued world-wide by numerous UN organs and subsidiary bodies.

For older UN Documents, use the following indexes:

On the Web, there are two different databases maintained by the UN that can be used to find citations to UN documents:

• UNBISnet: Indexed by the Dag Hammarskjold Library and the Library of the UN Office in Geneva, UNBIS is the primary index for finding citations to UN documents published since 1979 (it also provides some coverage of selected older, major documents). It includes the catalog of the non-UN collections of both libraries, a database of voting records for adopted resolutions, and an index to speeches. The database can be searched by author, title, subject, and/or UN document number.
• UN-I-QUE: A database designed to provide quick access to document symbols/sales numbers for UN materials from 1946 onwards. It does not give full bibliographic details nor does it replace UNBIS as a bibliographic database. UN-I-QUE focuses on documents and publications of a recurrent nature, such as: annual/sessional reports of committees/commissions; monographic series; journals; annual publications; reports periodically or irregularly issued; and reports of major conferences.

FULL TEXT DOCUMENTS

The Downtown Campus Library is a UN Depository. Therefore, you can check the Library catalog to see if the material is available in the Library or electronically. If you already have a UN citation, you may wish to check our UN collection on the 8th floor. Note, however, that some items are now part of our general collection, so be sure to ask a reference librarian if you are having any trouble locating materials.

Many recent and some historical UN materials can be found in full text on the UN Web site and in the UN's Official Document System. You may also wish to check the Web sites of the principal or specialized agency in question. Many other links are available on the Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) Web site, which can be accessed from any networked computer in the Downtown, Main , Rice Campus, or by remote access for students and faculty. UN Documents are not available on Lexis or Westlaw.

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