United Nations

UN Sites | UN Documents | Research Guides

Selected UN Web Sites and Directories

International Court of Justice

The judicial organ of the United Nations.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. The court was established by the Rome Statute of the International Court, which was entered into force on July 1, 2002. For additional information about this court and the statute that created it, see the United Nations’ Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Directory of United Nations System Organizations

UN agencies, committees, funds, etc. are grouped by category and listed alphabetically.

Departments of the UN Secretariat

Guide to departments of the UN Secretariat and their divisions .

United Nations Human Rights Websites – see our Human Rights page.

UN Documents and Research Sources

United Nations Official Document System Search

The Official Document System (ODS) is an online database of UN documents that was first launched in 1993 and updated in 2016. ODS has full-text, born-digital UN documents published from 1993 onward, including documents of the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and their subsidiaries, as well as administrative issuances and other documents. The database also includes scanned documents published between 1946 and 1993, including all resolutions of the principal organs, all documents of the Security Council and the General Assembly Official Records. Documents are available in the official languages of the UN; some documents are also available in German. ODS does not have the following types of materials: documents issued before 1993 that have not yet been digitized, press releases, sales publications, such as the Yearbook and the Treaty Series, and documents that do not have a UN symbol.

United Nations Law Collection – HeinOnline

This collection contains exact reproductions of major United Nations legal publications, including the complete collection of the United Nations Treaty Series, the League of Nations Treaty Series, the Monthly Statement of Treaties & International Agreements, UNCITRAL Publications, UNIDIR Publications, the United Nations Legislative Series and much more. Finding Aids and additional features make it easy to pull up a UN Treaty by entering a UNTS Citation, search for a UN Treaty, and link to law review articles that cite a UN Treaty. Available only to current CUNY School of Law students and faculty.

Research Guides

United Nations Documentation: Research Guide

A guide prepared by the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Library that “provides an overview of UN documents, publications, databases and websites” issued by the Organization (e.g, reports, resolutions, meeting records, sales publications, press releases) and gives guidance on how to work with them. This is an excellent introduction to UN research.

Yale University United Nations Documents and Information

A guide to UN research provided by Yale University. Some databases and materials referenced are specific to Yale’s collection, but it’s a good research guide for anyone.