The United Nations today released the sixty-sixth volume of the Yearbook of the United Nations, covering the Organization’s global activities in 2012. The Yearbook, as former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated in the Foreword to the volume, represents one more chapter in the enduring mission of the United Nations to stand up for the most vulnerable and to work to achieve peace, justice and better standards of living in larger freedom for all.
With its comprehensive coverage of political and security matters, human rights issues, economic and social questions, legal concerns, and institutional, administrative and budgetary proceedings, the Yearbook of the United Nations stands as the authoritative reference work on the activities of the Organization. Fully indexed, the 33-chapter, 1,589-page Yearbook includes all major General Assembly, Security Council and Economic and Social Council resolutions and decisions, uniquely placing them in a narrative context of United Nations consideration, deliberation and action. In preparing the work, the Yearbook editorial team researched and drew information from over 10,000 United Nations official documents pertaining to all aspects of the work of the Organization.
The newest addition to the Yearbook collection records the work of the United Nations in 2012 as the Organization responded to the regional calamity of civil war in the Syrian Arab Republic along with other threats to international peace and security, including the complex crisis in the Sahel region of Africa and unconstitutional changes of government and political violence elsewhere in the world. It also recounts how the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) confirmed a global commitment to economic development, social inclusion and environmental sustainability. This volume further sets forth progress in meeting the world’s humanitarian needs, achieving the Millennium Development Goals, taking action on climate change, addressing the global jobs crisis, and promoting human rights, justice and international law.
All previous volumes of the Yearbook collection, dating to the 1946–47 edition, can be accessed in full online on the Yearbook website: http://unyearbook.un.org. The Yearbook Express, also available on the website, features chapter introductions to selected Yearbooks in all six United Nations official languages. The Twitter account @UNYearbook provides an historical perspective on current United Nations activities and concerns.
The Yearbook of the United Nations 2012, volume 66, xiv + 1,589 pp., Sales No. E.14.I.1 H, ISBN: 978-92-1-101330-6, eISBN: 978-92-1-057850-9, can be obtained through bookstores worldwide, and ordered from United Nations Publications Customer Service, PO Box 960, Herndon, Virginia 20172, United States of America, or from https://shop.un.org/.