While certain UN documents can be accessed from certain UN sites at certain times, a more comprehensive source is the Official Document System (ODS). It’s available via the following links:
New York ODS site - http://www.ods.un.org/
Geneva ODS site - http://www.ods.unog.ch/
The database does not yet include all UN documents, but coverage is expanding. It’s particularly helpful for current documents, and for documents required in languages other than English. Most documents are available in the six official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Refer to the Help page for more information about coverage and searching (http://documents.un.org/help_E.htm).
The database is available for public use. Conference Room Papers (CRPs) and Working Papers are available to staff with a login and password.
Another source for current UN documents is the Dag Hammarskjöld Library’s UN Pulse blog, available at http://unhq-appspub-01.un.org/lib/dhlrefweblog.nsf/dx/about.htm.
Several recent UN documents of interest to readers include:
Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, A/60/338 (Sept. 2005) - http://www.brookings.edu/fp/projects/idp/RSG-GA_report.pdf or http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/482/79/pdf/N0548279.pdf?OpenElement
- First report of the IDP Representative to the General Assembly; presented on 28 Oct. 2005.
Report of the Secretary-General on women and peace and security, S/2005/636 (Oct. 2005) - http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/534/82/pdf/N0553482.pdf?OpenElement
- Contains Annex entitled “System-wide action plan for the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000)”.
Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, A/60/12(SUPP) (2005) - http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/540/26/pdf/N0554026.pdf?OpenElement
- UNHCR’s statute stipulates that it will follow policy directives issued by the General Assembly. The organization reports annually on its work, accordingly.
Statement by the President of the Security Council [on “Women and peace and security”], S/PRST/2005/52 (Oct. 2005) - http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/575/55/pdf/N0557555.pdf?OpenElement
Note: If you experience any difficulties following these links, you can always retrieve the document in question by going to the ODS simple search page, and searching on the document symbol.
Posted in Publications.