Posts filed under 'United Nations'
UC Berkeley has recently acquired full-text access to the United States Congressional Serial Set (1789-1969) through LexisNexis Congressional. The Serial Set contains the legislative history of United States, and also includes many historic agency annual reports, House and Senate Reports, and many other official government documents (for a more complete summary of what is contained in the Serial Set, click here). Prior to this acquisition, citations to the Serial Set found in LexisNexis Congressional had to be searched in the Readex United States Congressional Serial Set database. With this purchase, you can now search LexisNexis Congressional for all your congressional research needs. Off-campus access to LexisNexis Congressional is restricted to current UCB student, faculty and staff, though anyone in the Library may access the database.
May 5th, 2009
The Library has just subscribed to LexisNexis Statistical Datasets. The database provides fast and easy one-stop shopping to more than 5.3 billion (and growing) data points from licensed and public domain datasets. Sources of data include local, state and international governments and organizations. Datasets allows you to customize the data by selecting subjects, variable(s) of interest, and the ability to view your data in side-by-side tables, charts and even maps. Datasets also provides quick graphs and chats for statistics in the news, and when you download or print, you are given citation information from where the data originated. Anyone may access LexisNexis Statistical Datasets from the public computers in the Library, however, off-campus access to is restricted to current UCB faculty, staff and students through the proxy server or VPN.
December 8th, 2008
The United Nation’s has launched a channel on YouTube. From the UN YouTube channel:
The UN Channel features videos on a wide range of global topics including climate change, development, human rights and peace and security. UNTV also provides daily coverage of events, briefings and meetings at the UN headquarters in New York, at www.un.org/webcast.
Thanks to Annelise Sklar, the Intl Docs Librarian at UCSD, for sharing this with us via google reader.
October 6th, 2008
Human Rights Day 2007 2007 starts a year-long commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The theme for 2008 is Dignity and Justice for All of Us. The UN website includes a video of the Commemorative event which includes the address by UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon. Calendar of events for the year is available.
December 11th, 2007
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a draft version of its long awaited Synthesis Report (AR4) “Summary for Policymakers.”
The report forecasts that an increase of the earth’s temperature by 1.5 to 2.5 degrees will endanger 20-30 percent of the planet’s plants and animals, and that 75-250 million people in Africa will suffer from water shortages by 2020.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says climate change is “more frightening than any science fiction movie.”
The 23 page report is a summary of three other reports issued by the IPCC earlier this year, collectively called “Climate Change 2007“. The three other reports from the IPCC include the report of Working Group I, The Physical Science Basis ; Working Group II, Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability ; and Working Group III, Mitigation of Climate Change.
The report is expected to form the basis of a UN environmental summit in Bali, Indonesia in December 2007, where world leaders will discuss a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.
November 18th, 2007
As part of its mandate by the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur examines situations of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and submits an annual report of findings together with conclusions and recommendations to the Commission. Special attention is to be given to children and women and to allegations concerning violations of the right to life that result against participants in demonstrations or public manifestations. Special attention is also paid to situations were the victims are individuals carrying out peaceful activities in defense of human rights and basic freedoms. The Special Rapporteur website currently lists numerous statements and reports, such as: the crackdown in Myanmar, an interim report on Darfur, executions in Nigeria, police violence in Bangladesh, and more.
November 16th, 2007
The Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has issued a statement following the end of his visit to Brazil on November 14, 2007. The visit included meetings with a wide range of Brazilian officials, heads of military policy, visits to a prison in Sao Paulo, a police station in Rio de Janeiro, a settlement in Pernambuco and more. Meetings with key human rights individuals included the UN Country Team, and the Human Rights Commission of the Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly. The visit took place within the context of widespread concern about criminal violence in Brazil. The statement includes some data in its ‘key concerns’ section, such as: 45,000-50,000 homicides committed per year; in Pernambuco it is estimated that 70% of all homicides are committed by death squads. Preliminary conclusions and recommendations are contained in the statement.
November 16th, 2007
From the UC Berkeley News Center:
A renewed focus on agricultural development is critical to successfully reducing global poverty and hunger, according to a new World Bank report co-authored by economists at the University of California, Berkeley.
The report points out that 2.1 billion people earning less than $2 per day live in rural areas, and most of them depend upon agriculture for their livelihoods. However, only 4 percent of official development assistance to developing nations is earmarked for agriculture, down from 12 percent in 1990.
October 20th, 2007
A new report, prepared by scientists with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), assesses the consequences of global climate change. The 1572 page report, entitled Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, was produced by over 200 scientists and includes a summary endorsed by more than 120 countries. Currently, only the summary is available online. The assessment reports will be published separately by the IPCC working groups. Estimates of the publication dates are given below. (Thanks to Wiltrud Harms for finding the below information.)
Working Group I assesses the scientific aspects of the climate system and climate change.
The full Working Group I Report will be available from May 2007. It will be published by Cambridge University Press and is expected to be available in book form by late June 2007.
Working Group II assesses the vulnerability of socio-economic and natural systems to climate change, negative and positive consequences of climate change, and options for adapting to it. The page of Working Group II of the IPCC at does not give a tentative date for the publication of the Group’s contribution (approved by the IPCC plenary on April 6) but predicts that the [complete] Fourth Assessment Report will be published mid-2007.
Working Group III assesses options for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and otherwise mitigating climate change. The publication of the WG III report is expected in October 2007.
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April 7th, 2007
From the UN News Centre:
Welcoming recent signs of progress between Israelis and Palestinians on improving the situation in the Middle East, the high-level diplomatic Quartet, which includes the United Nations, today reaffirmed its determination to promote dialogue between the two sides, while urging both to refrain from any actions that may adversely affect negotiations.
March 28th, 2007
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