Dag Hammarskjöld Library at Uppsala University
UNRWA - United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
- © United Nations
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA - was established in 1949 to carry out relief and works programmes for Palestine refugees in cooperation with host governments.
UNRWA was created as a provisional organization following the first Arab-Israeli war. As a consequence of the inability of the international community and the immediate parties to the Middle East conflict to find a political solution and to solve the problem
of Palestine's refugees, the mandate of the Agency has been extended repeatedly and UNRWA has become the main provider of basic services to the Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA has its headquarters in Gaza and Amman, with field offices in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. With the exception of a small amount from the regular budget of the UN, UNRWA is almost exclusively financed through voluntary contributions.
Documentation
The UNRWA official web site provides background information, news, maps and full text documents and reports.
UN General Asembly Resolutions on UNRWA are posted at the UNRWA official web site.
UNRWA submits an annual report to the ECOSOC in the documentary series Economic and Social Council Official Records. Supplement No. 13. It provides a summary of UNRWA's programme and activities with references to relevant documents and reports. A complete collection in print is included in the UN collection of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. Reports form 1996 onwards are posted at the UNRWA official web site.
Relevant Statistics can be accessed from the UNRWA official web site.
A summary of the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East for a given year with references to essential documents can be accessed through the Yearbook of the United Nations, Part One, Political and Security Questions, Middle East. A complete collection of yearbooks is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. Since October 2008 the complete full text collection of The United Nations Yearbooks is available online at http://unyearbook.un.org/.
Databases and Indexes
References to UNRWA documents and reports from 1979 onwards with links to full texts for recent years can be accessed through the United Nations online catalogue - UNBISnet.