Your 96 by now dog-eared :-) pages of the latest issue of the UN Chronicle's "dead-tree edition" can hold only so much information. Despite a close reading, you find you still don't know all the details behind the Secretary-General's most recent recommendations on the refugee crisis in the Great Lakes region of Central
Africa. What's more, you need those answers fast --for
tomorrow morning's project proposal or that term paper
due yesterday. Or perhaps you are a concerned
individual who wants to help. What do you do? Easy, as
a Netizen of the world, you boot up your computer,
initialize your modem, and go online for help from the
United Nations' cyberspace safety Net.
The United Nations system's Web Site on the "I-way" -- with its broad coverage of every UN issue, continuous updating, important databases, and thousands of documents, reports and publications -- is a tremendous tool. And it's all free.
Herewith, an offering of just a few of the hundreds of pages you can visit. It starts at the newly redesigned Homepage of the United Nations system.
The UN HomePage (http://www.un.org) serves as a one-stop clearing house for information, where you can find not only basic facts on the United Nations system, but also schedules for upcoming conferences and events, the latest UN news, speeches, documents, publications, photos and more.
You can explore important general themes: peace and security; international law; humanitarian affairs; human rights; and economic and social development.
Developed and maintained by the Department of Public Information (DPI), with technical cooperation from the Information Technology Services Division of the Office of Conference and Support Services, the UN Homepage has quickly become a universally accessible source of news and information about every aspect of the work of the world Organization. The DPI database on the Net is the largest electronic database within the United Nations system. A popular Web Site, the Homepage was receiving some 1 million "hits" a week by the end of February 1997.
The UN Homepage also has a number of subpages in English or French, including some now available in Spanish. These link up to a host of other UN sites. Or, if you have neither the time nor the inclination to "browse", there's a useful Search engine to help find your way through the maze of information available to the public.
UN News covers breaking events. Following links on this page, you can
read the latest UN daily highlights, press releases, fact sheets and
periodicals.
Conferences and Events is where to go to download a calendar of UN
meetings or to link up to other sites that cover such important global
conferences as the recent Habitat II meeting.
UN Documents is an electronic collection of official UN documents,
updated daily with major reports and resolutions.
Databases leads you to the latest statistics collected by the UN
Statistical Division, information about international treaties or the UN
in Action Video Catalogue.
General Information--the name says it all. But in addition to offering
a wealth of basic information on UN activities and mandates, this
subpage also delivers great educational support. The United Nations
CyberSchoolBus page offers informative games, activities and teaching
aids designed to engage and educate, providing teachers and students
with the materials they need to learn about global issues. Departing
from http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus, this site makes learning about the world entertainment for children
of all ages.
For more scholarly electronic research, there is theUN Dag
Hammarskjöld Library (http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl). Besides giving users
online information about services, collections, databases, publications
and reference guides, the Library's subpage has a new database for
identifying major UN documents. A simple search on UN Info Quest
(UN-I-QUE) for reports of the Commission on Human Rights produces a
complete listing of symbols for all its sessional reports from 1947 to
the present! The subpage even contains a list of over 350 UN depository
libraries. Other impressive on-line libraries are available through the
Web Sites of the various United Nations specialized agencies and
programmes.
The UN/NGO Link should be considered indispensable for anyone wanting
to find how the United Nations works with such humanitarian agencies as
the International Committee for the Red Cross. The site allows a visitor
to link up to any number of outside NGOs.
ReliefWeb (http://www.reliefweb.int) is a United Nations Department of
Humanitarian Affairs project to strengthen the response capacity of the
humanitarian relief community through the timely dissemination of
reliable information on prevention, preparedness and disaster response.
Updated twice daily, it provides a wide array of sources, open
architecture (upwards and downwards compatible with legacy and future
software), easy navigation (well-organized), multi-language support, and
multi-platform compatibility.
UN Around the World (http://www.un.org/aroundworld)-- For a WhirlWindWeb
tour d'horizon, click on to the World Map of UN Web Sites and access UN
offices, agencies and organizations. From the United Nations Office at
Geneva site, you can link up with the Offices of the High Commissioners
for Refugees or for Human Rights, look into the most recent activities
of the Conference on Disarmament, or research the latest initiatives
regarding guinea worm disease at the World Health Organization. Browse
the United Nations Office at Vienna for the latest news on illegal
drugs, crime and justice issues, international trade law issues or the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
Interested in development economics? Visit the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C., or the United Nations Development Programme in New York. If you are researching nutrition programmes in Sierra Leone, go to the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. Studying efforts to address the psychological and health effects of conflict on children? The United Nations Children's Fund in New York has a powerful subsite devoted just to this issue. All these and more can be accessed directly from the World Map.
Faster access can be had through a convenient alphabetical list of United Nations agencies and departments located at the Official Website Locator for the UN System of Organizations (http://www.unsystem.org/index8.html).
This has been just a small cross section of the Web offerings of the United Nations system. Before you start your own exploring--and it is an adventure--one last thought: when you surf the Net, remember that "all roads lead to Rome". There is always more than one route to the information you need.
UN cyberspace sizzles.