Government Documents - History 296: World War II and the Making of Modern Asia/Pacific: United Nations Resources

ODS features comprehensive, though not complete, coverage of all types of publicly-available UN documentation, including:

• Resolutions going back to 1946 (Security Council, General Assembly, Economic and Social Council and Trusteeship Council)
• Selected Security Council and General Assembly documents going back to 1985
• Meeting Records 
• Reports
• Letters
• Daily Journals and Bulletins
• Administrative Issuances
• Administrative Tribunal Judgments.

In the ODS search screen, type your search terms into the "Full-text search" box, such as "Guantanamo Bay," as pictured below. 

You can also specify the language of documents you're searching for, and the type of full-text search you want to run (find any of the words, find all of the words, etc.).

When your search results come up, you can see

• the UN session or year that the document comes from
• the date it was published
• and the related subjects.

Web-based index to more than 500,000 current and archived United Nations documents and publications. Good for primary sources such as meeting minutes, notes, and resolutions.
You can conduct an advanced search by separating out topics, places, and other search terms.

For example:

• "war crimes" (in quotations marks to keep the phrase together) AND Yugoslavia, choosing from the pull-down menus where you want the search to take place (in All Fields, Subject, etc.).
• You can also Limit Search to Full-Text Documents by clicking on the circle next to Yes.
• Limit searches by date under that, if desired.

An Advanced Search screen example is below.

• Type in phrases such as "war crimes" and particular countries or areas you are interested in, such as Rwanda.
• After you click Search and your initial results are displayed, click on the blue Options tab to further filter results.
• You can sort by date, choose how many results to display at once, and the format.

These resources are helpful to your research when you want to gain an international perspective. IGOs include organizations such as the UN, NATO, the World Bank, and the European Union (EU).

• The IGO Custom Search Engine searches across hundreds of IGO websites, enabling users to research topics such as active IGOs working on treaties on human trafficking, or genocide prevention, among many other topics. It provides a way to search the websites of IGOs related to human rights, trafficking, genocide, and related issues.

• Some of them include:

• Audiovisual Library of International Law 

• International Committee of the Red Cross

• International Court of Justice

• International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

• International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (UN)

• International Labour Organization

• Inter-Governmental Consultations on Asylum, Refugee and Migration Policy

• Association of Southeast Asian States

• United Nations organizations. 

• These websites provide access to primary sources such as recordings and treaties, and secondary sources such as articles and reports.

• SEARCH TIP: Use Boolean operators such as AND & OR, all capitals, and quotation marks around phrases to find more specific results.
  • For example, search for genocide AND Rwanda, or "human trafficking" OR "sexual slavery" AND Japan.

Growing list of IGOs that Google's IGO engine searches through.