United Nations Issues Sixty-Second ‘Yearbook of the United Nations’

The United Nations issued today the sixty-second volume of the Yearbook of the United Nations, covering the activities of the Organization in 2008 worldwide, from Headquarters to the field.

With its comprehensive coverage of political and security matters, human rights issues, economic and social questions, legal issues and institutional matters, the Yearbook of the United Nations stands as the most authoritative and comprehensive reference work on the activities and concerns of the Organization.  Fully indexed, the 33-chapter, 1,757-page Yearbook also includes the texts of, and votes on, all General Assembly, Security Council and Economic and Social Council resolutions, as well as summaries of all decisions.

Published by the Department of Public Information, this latest volume highlights attention given by the United Nations in 2008 - a year that marked the sixtieth anniversary of United Nations peacekeeping - to conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Georgian province of Abkhazia and the Sudan, along with the challenges posed by the food security crisis, climate change, natural disasters, piracy and terrorism.  It recounts how the Human Rights Council in 2008 took its first step in examining the human rights record of all Member States every four years; and how, in a year that also marked the midway point towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, the General Assembly, as the global financial crisis brought the world economy to the brink of recession, held a high-level event to help ensure that the Goals remained on track.

As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in his Foreword, the Yearbook, “by promoting an informed understanding of the work and purposes of the United Nations among the peoples of the world […], contributes to building support for peace, development, human rights and the rule of law for all”.

The Yearbook of the United Nations2008 is available for $175 (Sales No. E.10.I.1 H; Print ISBN:  978-92-1-101227-9; eISBN:  978-92-1-054459-7) from United Nations Publications, New York, NY 10017, United States.  For further information, please see the website:  https://unp.un.org.  Questions can be directed to tel:  +1 800 253 9646 or +1 212 963 8302; e-mail:  publications@un.org; or fax:  +1 212 963 3489.

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For information media • not an official record