United Nations/IGOs - Public International Law Research - A Brief Guide - LibGuides at University of San Francisco School of Law

The United Nations and its Bodies

To find useful United Nations web sites, and to learn more about the U.N. see —

United Nations
The main U.N. site, which includes a section on International Law.
Directory of United Nations System Organizations
A topical and alphabetical guide to the sites for almost every UN body/organization.
International Law Commission
The ILC is charged with "the promotion of the progressive development of international law and its codification." To find documents on the major projects undertaken by the ILC, consult the Analytical Guide to the Work of the International Law Commission.
Human Rights Bodies - United Nations
Links to UN Charter-based bodies, including the Human Rights Council, and bodies created under the international human rights treaties.
United Nations Handbook - in print at USF
A good overview of the United Nations, from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In print: JZ4970 .U54 Law Reference.

To find United Nations documents, try the following —

Official Document System - United Nations ("ODS")
Flexible search engine allows for searching by keyword, subject, date, U.N. Document Symbols, and more. Currently covers 1993 (at least) to the present. (Resolutions from 1946 to 1992 are also available.)
U.N. Documents
Good for browsing. Links to documents from the General Assembly, Security Council, Human Rights Council, Economic and Social Council and other bodies.

AccessUN This link opens in a new window
(After log-in, select "Access UN 1945-[current year].") A finding-tool for United Nations documents from 1945 to the present. Includes Official Records, masthead documents, draft resolutions, meeting records, UN Sales Publications, and the UN Treaty Series citations). Also has selected U.N. Documents in full text. Of the documents too old to be online, many are available on microfiche on the lower level of the Zief Library. [On-campus link for AccessUN.]

United Nations Legal Publications - Global Search
Search engine for the selected, important UN legal publications.
United Nations Diplomatic Conferences
Text of official records of diplomatic conferences convoked by the U.N. and charged with drafting treaties. Useful for drafting history of and background information about treaties negotiated in diplomatic conferences under the auspices of the U.N.

Use these sites: to find web sites for regional and international intergovernmental organizations; and to search across IGO web sites.

Intergovernmental Organization Search Engine - Google Custom Search
Searches across hundreds of IGO web sites, using Google's search engine.

For guides to United Nations research and United Nations document, try —

Researching the United Nations: Finding the Organization's Internal Resource Trails
(1) "search techniques for several standard types of queries and, as a compass," and (2) "the U.N.'s many diverse search tools organized into resource types." By Linda Tashbook. (Last updated in 2016)
UN Documentation: Overview - U.N. Dag Hammarskjöld Library
This guide "presents an overview of selected UN documents, publications, databases and websites. It provides details on the patterns of documentation of the active principal UN organs. It presents documentation of the organs and subsidiary bodies involved in areas of interest to many researchers."
UN Documentation: How to Find UN Documents - Dag Hammarskjöld Library
Sections include: Find UN Documents; Find Resolutions; Find Reports; Find Meeting Records & Speeches; Find Voting Records.
Selected U.N. Resources and Research Tools: Overview and Search Tips for Legal Research
Describes and compares "the most important finding tools for United Nations documents." For ease of use, most researchers will prefer to use Selected U.N. Resources in PDF format. By Wiltrud Harms of the Univ. of California at Berkeley Law Library. (Published in 2007.)