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Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal

Produced by the Information Unit for Conventions (IUC) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), this site maintains information on the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. The Basel Convention was adopted in 1989 and entered into force on 5 May 1992. The treaty strictly regulates the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and provides obligations to its Parties to ensure that such wastes are managed and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

European Free Trade Association - (EFTA)

EFTA was founded in 1960 with the purpose of removing trade barriers between its member nations. Currently these are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The website provides information on the EFTA Secretariat, EFTA Surveillance Authority and EFTA Court. The Secretariat section includes information on the purpose and structure of EFTA as well as its annual reports and recent press releases. Also accessible are the Stockholm Convention and fact sheets on the relationship between EFTA and the European Economic Area (EEA).

International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which acts to maintain and extend international cooperation in the standardization and improvement of all forms of telecommunication. Its website provides information on the history and membership of the ITU with the full-text of all its press releases from 1996 onwards. It also offers a calendar of forthcoming events, news cuttings relating to the telecommunications sector and information on world radio communication conferences.

Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)

The IPU is an international organisation of parliaments of sovereign states which acts to promote parliamentary democracy and provides a forum for worldwide parliamentary dialogue. Its website is available in French or English and includes information on the structure, purpose and activities of the IPU. The full-text of recent press releases from the organisation and the text of resolutions are accessible. Also available online is PARLIT, the IPU's searchable database of bibliographic references to books and articles relevant to the study of parliamentary law and practise.

United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG)

The United Nations Office at Geneva is the largest and most active centre for multilateral conference diplomacy in the world. The main areas of its expertise are disarmament, human rights, humanitarian affairs and trade and economic activities. The site contains links to speeches by the Director-General and a searchable list of press releases, which are available in full-text in HTML and PDF formats. There are also links to the UNOG Library. A further feature of the site is an archive of documents which contains the full-text of key documents such as the UN charter.

International Labour Organization (ILO)

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations which seeks to promote employment rights, human rights and social justice. The website gives details of the ILO's history, structure and work programmes. It provides numerous free databases of labour-related information and documentation, including national labour laws, international labour standards, treaty information, statistics and a bibliography compiled by the ILO Library.

UNHCR: the UN Refugee Agency

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was created by the UN General Assembly in 1951. The site offers background information about the work of the UNHCR which includes advocacy, capacity building, fund raising and global needs assessment. There is a section dealing with the groups of people the UNHCR works with including children, women, elderly, disabled and asylem seekers and information on the areas of the world where the UNHRC operates. There are legal documents, statistics and global reports.

International Committee of the Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is the leading international humanitarian organization. Its website has a substantial section devoted to international humanitarian law ('Law and War'). It includes the Geneva Conventions, with commentaries, and a database of customary international humanitarian law. The site also provides ICRC publications, including cases studies and the International Review of the Red Cross back to 2004 (plus two earlier issues), as well as e-learning modules. The site is available English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Portuguese.

Refworld (UNHCR)

A large collection of law and policy documentation relating to refugees and statelessness, provided free by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since 2007 as a resource for decision-making on refugee status. The database includes country reports sourced from the UN, NGOs, governments, international organisations, academic institutions and judicial bodies, focusing on the country situation and human rights issues.

International Commission of Jurists

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) seeks to promote international human rights standards through the rule of law. Formed in 1952, its membership is made up of sixty lawyers representing different legal systems from around the world. The ICJ's website gives a history of the organisation, details of its activities and profiles of each Commissioner. The ICJ Legal Resource Centre page provides a searchable database of reports, press releases, legal documents and other publications, which are available in full-text form.

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