Satellites are used for just about any purpose imaginable, and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNITAR) is one that is meant to help out in "the life of communities exposed to poverty, hazards and risk." On their site, visitors should first take a look at the "What we do" area to learn about their recent achievements and work....

Provided by the UN Foundation, UN Wire is a new "daily news summary covering the United Nations, global affairs and key international issues." Users interested in the UN or global affairs will find UN Wire an excellent resource for quick, concise accounts of the day's major stories. Each day, UN Wire covers issues such as UN Affairs; Health; Women, Children, and Population; Environment; Trade;...

Established in 1999, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) was designed to meet both the needs of UNESCO Member States and to provide the international community with a wide range of statistical information in order to "analyze the efficiency and effectiveness of their programmes and to inform their policy decisions." The UIC is hosted by the University of Montreal, and performs work around...

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Electronic Document Management System offers researchers this database. The UNESDOC database, provides multilingual, full-text access to documents of major governing bodies, field mission reports, speeches of the Director-General, and the UNESCO Sources Bulletin. UNESDOC documents are presented as text or .pdf files,...

In the year 2000, all of the world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions signed on to a compact sponsored by the United Nations in order to assist the needs of the world's poorest people. This compact included eight primary development goals that would be met by 2015. Some of these goals included a significant reduction of child mortality and the promotion of gender...

How does the United Nations work to protect human rights? This subject-specific website provides information on the various offices, officials, policy initiatives, and actions related to this important agenda. There are five main sections to the site: UN Bodies, Thematic Issues, International Courts and Tribunals, Other Resources, and Past Conferences. The UN Bodies section contains information...

The United Nations (UN) works on a myriad of topics related to human development, including addressing ethnic strife in different parts of the globe and coordinating disaster response strategies. This particular section of the UN website provides information about their work on humanitarian affairs. Here visitors can use the right-hand side of the page to learn about various programs that are...

UNRISD is an organization with roots going back to 1963. Its mandate is to study the relationship between social and economic development. This takes the form of multi-country research (with an emphasis on developing countries), as well as "action research" in the areas of "integrating gender into development planning and rebuilding war-torn societies." The main site also offers information about...

The eight-day World Conference against Racism is drawing to a close today, and while some strides have been made in resolving the differences that have marked this as a contentious gathering, the conference seems to have proven, above anything else, that the issues that divide the world can not be easily addressed. Much of the conference has been dominated by two issues: the language equating...