Access to United Nations Human Rights Documentation

Abstract

Although human rights is one of the three major pillars of the United Nations system, getting access to UN human rights information and documentation has never been easy. Some factors contributing to this are the way in which UN documentation is classified (by the UN body that generates them, rather than by subject); the low priority attached to human rights as compared, for example, with peace and security, coupled with the fact that many governments are not eager to see human rights reports widely disseminated; and the fact that, until recently, the UN Centre for Human Rights (now called the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights/ UN Centre for Human Rights-hereinafter HCHR/UNCHR) had resisted computerization and new methods of information handling.' HCHR/UNCHR