The UN likely has hundreds, if not thousands, of webpages due to its complex structure with many different departments, agencies, and country teams, all maintaining their own websites accessible through the main UN portal, resulting in a large number of individual webpages across the entire UN system. This subject guide lists a few essential websites students should familiarize themselves with to do UN-related research.
When you're researching a UN topic, rather than search using general terms try to search within the specific agency that deals with that topic. Every topic has a lead agency. The published issue brief will tell you what the lead agency is. It is much more effective to research within the lead agency rather than the general UN page or Google search engine.
The Dag Hammarskjöld Library is a library on the grounds of the headquarters of the United Nations, located in the Turtle Bay/East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is connected to the Secretariat and Conference buildings through ground level and underground corridors. It is named after Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. The library was founded in 1946, and the current library building was completed in 1961.
Additionally, the library is the main depository for United Nations documents and publications and maintains a selected collection of materials of the specialized agencies and United Nations affiliated bodies, as well as a collection of books, periodicals and other materials related to the organization's programs of activities. The library also produces a digital library of UN materials, an index to the proceedings and documentation of the major UN bodies, as well as providing research guides for finding UN-related material and information. (Wikipedia, 2024)
UN Digital Library - The online catalogue of UN documents and publications. The Digital Library provides access to UN documents, voting data, speeches, maps, and open access publications.
Open Access Databases - Open Access A-Z databases from the Dag Hammarskjöld Library
UN Main Bodies - The main bodies of the United Nations are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat. All were established under the UN Charter when the Organization was founded in 1945.
UN Resources - Explore and easily find United Nations Resources using the following filters: Country, Territory or Region; Year; Topic Area; Type of Document
UN Member States on Record - Find primary source materials related to each Member State’s contribution to the activities and deliberations of the UN. Provides enhanced access to information about Member States’ participation in the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, and the Human Rights Council.
For each Member State, the website features:
- General Debate statements
- All speeches in principal organs
- Co-sponsorship of draft resolutions
- Date of membership with links to associated documents
- NEW! Notes verbales announcing diplomatic relations between states
- NEW! Dates served as member of Security Council, Economic and Social Council, and Human Rights Council
Yearbook of the United Nations - The Yearbook of the United Nations—published by the Department of Global Communications—stands as the authoritative reference work on the activities and concerns of the Organization. Based on official UN documents, the Yearbook provides comprehensive coverage of political and security matters, human rights issues, economic and social questions, legal issues, and institutional, administrative and budgetary matters.
UN Meetings Coverage & Press Releases - Summaries of official meetings and events at UN Headquarters and overseas conferences. Press releases from the main United Nations bodies, as well as offices and departments of the Secretariat.
Index to Proceedings - The Index to Proceedings is an annual bibliographic guide to the proceedings and documentation of the major organs. The Indexes are prepared by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library and are produced at the end of the session/year.
Voting Data - Search voting data of UN General Assembly & Security Council. Limit search by subject & by date.
A key research strategy is to find the name of your country's leader, foreign minister, and UN ambassador. Anything these three people say is official country policy (which is what you're looking for). If you search for speeches with these names it is much more effective than searching by the country name.
Every country maintains a permanent mission for the UN in New York City. Most countries maintain a website for that mission that includes really helpful information about the country's foreign policies and positions on UN topics. The fastest way to discover the URL for a country's website is to enter "Permanent UN mission [country name]" in a search engine. If you're lucky, the documents you need will be in English. If you encounter a UN mission website published in a language other than English, you can enter the webpage URL into Google Translate, which may be able to translate the majority of the site content to English.
Speeches
Programs
Events
Additional Resources