The United Nations is an organization made up of member countries who serve together to fight for human rights, world wide peacekeeping, environmental rights, to fight against drug trafficking and landmine use as well as working in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The UN has headquarters in New York City, but also has locations all over the world, most notable the International Court of Justice at The Hague, located in the Netherlands. The United Nations has fifteen specialized agencies, which include but are not limited to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank Group, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The amount of data and information available from the United Nations and the specialized agencies is staggering. You can access a majority of this information via the UN Library online at http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/. Data and information for the specialized agencies is available on their respective websites and some databases provided at various academic libraries across the country. Resources from the UN are available in a number of different languages. The UN Library offers some very well-made reference maps, major documents coming from the General Assembly, voting records and speeches given at the UN. You can also search for your local United Nations depository library for acquiring any UN materials in print. There is no activity for this section because a whole class can be given just on UN documents and there is just not sufficient time or space to do any of it justice. You are encouraged to explore the online library and can feel free to ask any questions regarding UN information, if you have any.