UNITED NATIONS OPENS OFFICIAL DOCUMENT SYSTEM TO GENERAL PUBLIC

NEW YORK, 23 December -- The United Nations today announced the availability of its Official Document System (ODS), the premier full-text web resource for official United Nations documentation, to the general public via http://documents.un.org, as of 31 December 2004.  The ODS covers all types of official United Nations documentation originating from duty stations worldwide, including selective documents of the regional commissions:  Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).

Comprehensive coverage starts in 1993. Older United Nations documents are added to the system on a daily basis.  Selective coverage of General Assembly and Security Council documentation currently reaches back to 1985.  The ODS also provides access to the resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards.

Currently, the ODS contains close to 800,000 files and approximately 100,000 new documents are added each year.

Users may take advantage of the ODS benefits such as:  quick access to valuable United Nations official documents, easy-to-use search functionality, easy-to-print PDF documents and user-friendly design.

An ODS Training Guide is posted at: http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/train.htm.

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*     Reissued for technical reasons.