To promote international progress and security, the United Nations creates a series of treaties among nations. The United Nations Treaty Collection (UNTC) is an online database providing full texts of United Nations Treaty Series, League of Nations Treaty Series and multilateral treaties filed by the Secretary-General of the U.N. (SGUN) and its latest status.

The database offers access to over 200,000 bilateral and multilateral treaties filed by the Secretariat. They are recorded in their authentic languages, along with translations into English and French. More than 550 major multilateral instruments cover a wide range of issues that catch global attention, such as human rights, disarmament, commodities, refugees, environment and crimes.

The UNTC offers multiple search criteria so that people can reach treaties by searching participants, subject terms, registration number, date of adoption or keywords.

Apart from treaties, the UNTC publishes information about annual treaty events organized by the Treaty Section of the U.N. The SGUN invites heads of states and governments to attend the event and identifies a series of treaties to be the focus of the event every September. The treaty events aim to advocate universal participation in the multilateral treaties deposited with the SGUN, raise global awareness of international challenges and encourage active engagement of member states in their resolution within the international legal framework.

Treaty training information is also available on the UNTC website. The U.N. hosts annual regional training seminars and workshops on treaty law and domestic implementation of treaty obligations in different countries. The U.N. currently offers member states technical assistance in connection with a range of legal matters. Such assistance includes providing advice, expertise, research, analysis and training.

– Liying Qian

Sources: Learn Stuff, United Nations Treaty Collection, Utrecht University Library
Photo: Wikipedia