International Government Information
Jump to a section: Foreign Countries | United Nations | Non-governmental and International Governmental Organizations
Core Web Resources
- United Nations - - This is the United Nations' homepage. You can search here for General Assembly and Security Council resolutions.
- Official Document System of the United Nations - - This is the best site to search for full text United Nations records, resolutions, and other select publications.
- UNBISNET: UN Bibliographic Information System - - includes records from the catalog of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, voting records for the UN General Assembly (from 1983 to the present), and the Security Council (1946 to the present), with links to full text of resolutions. Also includes an index to speeches from the General Assembly, Security Council and Economic and Social Council from 1983 to the present and the Trusteeship Council from 1982 to the present.
- United Nations Classification Numbers - - The UN Numbers list is an extensive bibliography, describing the United Nations collection in the Government Publications Department at Founders Memorial Library. It highlights important and useful publications that can be found there, and is an essential aid to effective browsing and use of the collection. The list also provides links to UN agencies and related materials.
- Foreign Governments - - This page is maintained by the Government Information, Maps and Data section of Northwestern University Library.
- International Governmental Organizations - - Exhaustive list of organizations. Also maintained by the Government Information, Maps and Data section of Northwestern University Library.
- Embassies and Consulates Directory at GoAbroad.com - - You can find the web addresses, email addresses, and postal addresses of all the foreign embassies and consulates located in any particular country and that particular country's embassies and consulates in other countries.
Foreign Countries
- Foreign Governments - - This page is maintained by the Government Information, Maps and Data section of Northwestern University Library.
- BBC Country Profiles - - Profiles of countries and territories, including history, politics and economic background.
- CIA World Factbook - - CIA-produced descriptive profiles of countries, territories and dependencies, including flags of the world and regional maps. The Central Intelligence Agency also now offers the Factbook in compressed file (.zip) format so that the entire document or sections of it can be downloaded to a local computer. The downloads page offers detailed instructions and links to further download pages for past factbooks from 2000 to the present.
- Countries, Regions - - presented by the U.S. State Department, provides information on each country along with current U.S. policy and relations. Links to the Diplomatic List of foreign embassy personnel in the U.S., and other Foreign Embassy Information & Publications.
- Country Analysis Briefs (Energy Information Admistration) - - provides information on energy consumption, production and reserves, carbon emissions and economic and demographic indicators for countries and regions. Background and analysis is also given.
- Country Studies - - from the site: “The Country Studies Series presents a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of countries throughout the world.” Many of the studies are dated, but the historical information is still useful.
- Foreign Labor Statistics - - from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this page provides international comparison data on labor force, employment & unemployment, hourly compensation, productivity & labor costs, GDP, and consumer prices.
- Foreign Relations of the United States- -electronic facsimile - - for older historic volumes, or visit the official State Department site for more recent ones.
- GLIN: Global Legal Information Network from the Law Library of Congress, is a database of “laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations.” Some sources, particularly US, are full-text.
- Also from the Law Library of Congress is Global Legal Monitor, a publication which covers legal developments around the world.
- Multilaterals Project - Edwin Ginn Library - - This is an ongoing effort to “make available the texts of international multilateral conventions and other instruments.”
- Nations of the World (Nations and Associated Jurisdictions) - - provides links to information about constitutions, branches of government, legal guides and general information for countries. This page is maintained by the Law Library of Congress. Also take a look at Portals to the World from the Library of Congress.
- Portals to the World - - “contains selective links providing authoritative, in-depth information about the nations and other areas of the world.”
- Statistics Canada - - provides statistics on subjects such as agriculture, environment, health, justice, labor, population and more.
- Statistics - National Agencies and Compendia comprehensive list of links to foreign government statistics collecting agencies and, where available, their yearbooks.
- Trade Data & Analysis - - gives imports and exports by commodity or country.
- Treaties in Force - - Current State Department listing of bilateral and multilateral treaties, and other international agreements of the United States.
- Treaties Search Page - - US treaty information and current status, from Congress' Thomas website. Complete coverage begins with the 94th Congress. Older treaties are included if they were pending in 1975 when the database was created.
- Treaty Affairs - - from the US State Department, current information.
- USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse - - this database contains more than 30,000 reports from the Agency for International Development. Reports detail agency efforts to assist national and local governments in foreign countries, in areas of development such as infrastructure, education and health.
- US Overseas Loans and Grants [greenbook] - - provides historical data on all loans and grants from the US government to the rest of the world. Covers from the Post-World War II era to the present. The site also provides helpful information on how to interpret the data, on the about page. Data can be viewed online, or downloaded as either a comma-delimited (.csv) or rich text (rtf) file.
- United States Trade Representative - - This is the agency which represents the US government in trade disputes and negotiations. This site includes a searchable document library, that covers news releases and reports, such as their annual National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers.
- Websites of U.S. Embassies and Consulates - - consists of links to overseas embassies and consulates for each country, listed by region. Each embassy/consulate page includes highlights of US relations with that country, and often will include links to reports such as the Country Commercial Guides or annual reviews such as Country Reports on Human Rights Practices or the International Religious Freedom Report.
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United Nations
- United Nations - - This is the United Nations' homepage. You can search here for General Assembly and Security Council resolutions.
- Official Document System of the United Nations - - This is the best site to search for full text United Nations records, resolutions, and other select publications.
- UNBISNET: UN Bibliographic Information System - - includes records from the catalog of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, voting records for the UN General Assembly (from 1983 to the present), and the Security Council (1946 to the present), with links to full text of resolutions. Also includes an index to speeches from the General Assembly, Security Council and Economic and Social Council from 1983 to the present and the Trusteeship Council from 1982 to the present.
- United Nations Classification Numbers - - The UN Numbers list is an extensive bibliography, describing the United Nations collection in the Government Publications Department at Founders Memorial Library. It highlights important and useful publications that can be found there, and is an essential aid to effective browsing and use of the collection. The list also provides links to UN agencies and related materials.
- Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament - - 1962 conference established to promote dialogue between the US and the Soviet Union. The University of Michigan hosts this digitized collection.
- Electronic Information System for International Law - - an effort to bring together “the highest quality primary materials, authoritative web sites and helpful research guides to international law on the Internet.” This directory was created by the American Society of International Law.
- Human Development Report - - from the United Nations Development Program, this annual report looks at problems facing developing countries, such as poverty, education, sanitation, nutrition, crime, environmental degradation, HIV/AIDS, refugees and development aid. Also includes regional and country reports focusing on the same issues. Choose a year, global, regional or national report and topics from right side drop-down lists.
- Human Rights in the World - - The front page of this web site includes a map of the world, organized by region and a list of member states, and the date they joined the United Nations. The name of each country on the list is a link to a page for that country. Each country page lists recent reports and observations from UN representatives who have visited that country, and information on the status of the country's action on human rights-related treaties.
- International Humanitarian Law (Treaty Database) - - a collection of treaties related to humanitarian law, hosted by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
- International Justice Statistics - - from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, this site includes links to the UN data collection, UN participating research institutes, and foreign governments statistical reporting agencies on justice, public safety and law.
- League of Nations Statistical and Disarmament Documents - - “Contains the full-text of 260 League of Nations documents including the Statistical Yearbook of the League of Nations (1926-1944).”
- UN Multimedia - - This site provides an array of services produced by the United Nations. Among them are radio webcasts, a photo library which includes a UN pictorial history from the League of Nations era to the present, UN produced TV programs, and a catalog of videos available for broadcast.
- UN Pulse - - This weblog announces “just-released UN online information, major reports, publications and documents. Created and maintained by a team of reference librarians at the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library in New York, UN Pulse is updated as new information is published and received.” [description from “About page”]
- United Nations Classification Numbers http://www.ulib.niu.edu/govpub/un-numbers.html — The UN Numbers list is an extensive bibliography, describing the United Nations collection in the Government Publications Department at Founders Memorial Library. It highlights important and useful publications that can be found there, and is an essential aid to effective browsing and use of the collection. The list also provides links to UN agencies and related materials.
- Voting Practices in the United Nations - - from the State Department, an assessment of the voting practices of member nations in the United Nations. The website hosts versions of this annual report from 2000 to the present.
- World Drug Report - - from the United Nations, this resource presents statistics on production and distribution of illicit substances.
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Non-governmental and International Governmental Organizations
- NGO [Non-governmental Organizations] Research Guide - Full List - - Provides an alphabetic list of organizations, including the region, subject, and affiliation for each one. Also has links to available websites.
- Non-Governmental Organizations Search - - This is a customized Google search that scans over a thousand international and non-governmental organization websites.
- UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs - - hosts a searchable NGO database. The search box appears on their homepage and in the upper right corner of each page on the website. Search results can be downloaded in spreadsheet (.xls) format.
- International Governmental Organizations - - Exhaustive list of organizations. Also maintained by the Government Information, Maps and Data section of Northwestern University Library.
- GATT Digital Library - - “This site provides access to documents and information of and about the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), an organization that promoted international commerce and the reduction of trade barriers among member states from 1947-1994.”
- G8 Information Centre - - offers news, official documents from summit meetings, along with scholarly writing and analysis, for this organization comprised of the heads of state of the major industrial democracies (France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada).
- OECD Economic Surveys [NIU subscription] - - “produces in-depth reviews of Member countries' economies and selected non-Member countries” (SourceOECD). Surveys cover current economic developments with special coverage of current interest topics. They also include statistical information. The OECD is made up of countries from Europe and North America, and include Australia, Japan and Korea from the Pacific region.
- OECD Statistics Portal - - from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a variety of statistical categories from agriculture & fisheries to finance to international trade to social and welfare statistics.
- Trade Agreements - - View agreements for trade, intellectual property rights, the World Trade Organization (WTO), free trade, and investment treaties. The site also includes exporter's guides for many of the agreements.
- World Economic Outlook Database - - economic information for countries and regions, from the International Monetary Fund.
- World Health Reports - - Description from the site: “Each year the report combines an expert assessment of global health, including statistics relating to all countries, with a focus on a specific subject. The main purpose of the report is to provide countries, donor agencies, international organizations and others with the information they need to help them make policy and funding decisions.” The website hosts the annual reports from 1995 to the present.
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