HL Deb 11 July 1994 vol 556 c90WA
Lord Avebury

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will propose to the United Nations that all UN documents, including particularly the documents issued by the Human Rights Centre in Geneva, be made accessible via the Internet, so that users do not have to wait for several weeks before they can obtain the texts in their own countries.

Baroness Chalker of Wallasey

Documents issued by the Human Rights Centre in Geneva are not available on the Internet.

The UN is working on its own computer system which will allow Missions to gain access to all key documents (full-text) produced in New York and Geneva since 1993. At present, this system is only available to Diplomatic Missions in New York and Geneva. There are however teething problems and the provision of a full service is likely to be a long term project. Finer details, including availability in the capital cities of member states, have yet to be worked out. We are working closely with the UN Secretariat in order to achieve this.