The United Nations

“ Since, with a few exceptions - most of them of a political character - reports and studies are prepared by the Secretariat only as part of planned work programmes adopted after due consideration by the organs concerned, it is the duty of the substantive department concerned to make known to an organ considering a proposal involving additional documentation not only any difficulties it may have in preparing the documentation because of the exigencies of its own work programme but the capacity of the technical services to carry out the work. ”

“ Under no circumstances, including but not limited to negligence, shall the United Nations or its affiliates be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, even if the United Nations has been advised of the possibility of such damages. ”

“ All tertiary URLs for United Nations web sites should be communicated to the Working Group on Internet Matters, which will monitor the use of these URLs for the main United Nations web site. Lower-level URLs, such as http://www.un.org/works, should be thematically meaningful, and abbreviations and acronyms not widely used should be avoided. ”

“ The authors of articles contributed to United Nations publications or of papers submitted to seminars or other meetings, which are to be published by the United Nations, sometimes seek permission to publish their articles or papers under their own name in a book or a professional journal. Where such publication is to take place after the United Nations publications have appeared, the general practice applies (see paras. 7-10) . In some cases, however, permission is sought to reproduce articles or papers prepared for the United Nations prior to their publication by the United Nations itself. ”

“ They offer the most comprehensive access to information on the work of the United Nations for Governments and their missions, other United Nations programmes and organizations, other intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, the media and the public worldwide. The Publications Board, in view of its coordinating role, its oversight of the Internet publishing programme and its issuance from time to time of administrative instructions and guidelines on Internet publishing, will ensure that the information provided on those web sites is standardized and of high quality. ”

“ The United Nations does not normally retain copyright, considering that policy best suited to facilitating the dissemination of its publications as widely as possible. The general retention of copyright could give the impression of restriction and of setting up a procedural barrier, namely, the need to request permission to use the material. ”

“ The sale of the proceedings of major United Nations conferences is a revenue-producing activity to which the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions attaches considerable importance. ”

“ There is general consensus that the revised copyright policy has had a positive impact and yielded the desired result of enhancing the control the Organization retains over the use of its intellectual property to ensure that it is used in the best interests of the United Nations and to protect the revenues that might accrue from sales and external publications. However, it is apparent that greater efforts are required by author departments at all duty stations to adhere to and apply uniformly the copyright policy and procedures announced in ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.2. ”

“ In accordance with the policy of promoting the widest dissemination possible, the Secretariat should give all reasonable encouragement to any reputable publisher proposing to issue a translation of a United Nations publication that is not copyrighted in a language in which the United Nations is not itself publishing it. ”

“ In cases where public authorities, societies and commercial publishers contemplate seperate editions of United Nations publications that are not copyright in languages in which the United Nations has issued or is preparing to issue the publications in question, the authorities concerned should be invited to consider the alternative of bulk purchase from the United Nations at special rates. ”

“ Copyright United Nations Publications include certain titles containing statistical, scientific or other specialized technical material - in many cases supplied to the United Nations by or with the co-operation of Governments of Member States, which might not have been prepared to furnish the same information to commercial publishers. ”

“ The maintenance of up-to-date information on the Organization's Internet policies and its dissemination to all Secretariat offices and programmes. Responsibilities of author departments
2.6 Every department, office, including those away from Headquarters, mission and information centre is encouraged to establish an Internet site relating to its specific programmes, bearing in mind the provisions set out in the present guidelines. ”

“ If copyrighted material is to be reproduced, the authorization of the owner of the copyright - publisher and/or author - may have to be obtained and acknowledged. Authorization must generally be obtained for the reproduction of a drawing, diagram, photograph or the like and of texts of substantial length and that authorization should be sought and retained on file by the author department. ”

“ Where required by lack of technical or infrastructure resources at a United Nations location, the operation of an Internet server may be contracted to an outside entity by the author department, provided that the content of the site is controlled exclusively by the United Nations. ”

“ Editorial Control, the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly Affairs in respect of the main documentation of the General Assembly and the Editorial Section of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs in respect of the documentation prepared in that Department are repsonsible, under the Chief Editor, for seeing that all documentation submitted for reproduction and translation conforms to United Nations editorial policy and practice. ”

“ Technical development and infrastructure should be consistent among the sites and should aim at ease of use in all regions, including those with less advanced hardware and software infrastructure and availability. ”

“ Clear manuscripts reduce the burden on the typing units of the Office of Conference Services, and full and accurate referencing of material for translation can speed up the work of the translation services. ”

“ The designations "developed" and "developing" regions are intended for statistical and analytical convenience and do not necessarily express a judgement about the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process. ”

“ Some offices away from Headquarters may be provided with secure access to the Headquarters web server in order to maintain their sites.
Server responsibility 3.8 All United Nations files for publication on the Internet, with the exception of public information materials, should physically reside on a web server operated by the United Nations or under arrangements approved by the Publications Board. ”

“ It follows, therefore, that such additional documentation will require financial provision for editing, translation, typing and reproduction. This aspect of the question must not be overlooked in the preparation of the statement of financial implications that is submitted to any organ or body before it takes a decision on a proposal involving documentation.
9. Greater precision is called for on the part of each branch of the Secretariat that has a documents programme in preparing the estimates of documentation required. ”

“ Such loss could, however, occur in cases where a relatively small number of papers contain the bulk of the most valuble material and where their unauthorized use by a commercial publisher could therefore have a detrimental effect on the sale of the official proceedings. ”

“ Overall responsibility and accountability for United Nations Internet publishing
2.1 The United Nations Internet sites at Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Geneva, Nairobi, New York, Santiago and Vienna comprise the main server sites of the Secretariat at Headquarters and at offices away from Headquarters. ”

“ The objectives, organization and coordination of web sites, as well as the Internet portion of the biennial publications programme; (b) The harmonization and compatibility of the presentation of material and of the related software and file formats used; (c) The improvement of navigation and search functions, including document numbering and identification systems; (d) Cooperation with information technology services on hardware, software and security issues; (e) The confidentiality of designated United Nations materials and the privacy of United Nations staff ”