The United Nations (UN) founded in 1945 is an international organisation that had built upon the work of it predecessor, The League of Nations. The organisation aims to maintain global peace, security, and encourage cooperation between its current 193 Member States. Established under the UN Charter the main bodies of the United Nations are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat.
The University of Hong Kong Law Library is a designated United Nations depository, one of only two in Hong Kong (The other being Central Library). We receive masthead documents, official records, selected sales publications, and electronic resources of the United Nations from various duty stations (New York, Geneva, Vienna, and Bangkok). With the adoption of electronic deposit by the United Nations Publications Board since January 2001, the Libraries also receives masthead documents and official records in electronic format.
The UN Secretariat
The General Assembly
The Security Council
The International Court of Justice
The Trusteeship Council
The Economic and Social Council
On the 2/F of the Lui Che Woo Law Library you may find out microform room. It is also the coldest room in the law library, so make sure you bring a jumper :)
In this collection there are:
- Microfiche copies of UN documents
- Official records and working documents from 5 of the 6 principal organs: plenary series documents, verbatim records, summary records, resolutions, supplements, annexes, sessional fascicles, committee documents, petitions, and observations
Finding the right document
Readex (Top Left): The company/publisher that produces the microfiche collection in this example.
The Document Number (Top Right): Means of document identification with this example reading as follows… Supplement No.4 p.0-39 (to cont.)
Reading the Microform
Here you may find a link to a YouTube video explaining the use of the model of microform machine that we use at the law library:
Saving UN Documents
When using the microform reader, you may save digital copies of UN Documents by saving them to a USB or by emailing them out.
The UNs Declaration of Human Rights is a vital document, something that you may take interest in reading. This document here serves as an example from our microfilm collection.