United Nations Institute for Training and Research
The Research and Training Institute of the United Nations ( engl. United Nations Institute for Training and Research, UNITAR abbreviated; French Institute Nations Treaty Series pour la formation et la recherche ) is a United Nations founded in 1965 an autonomous institution. Its aim is mainly administrative staff in developing countries and their skills; so it does not conduct training of UN personnel. It also performs research on the activities of the United Nations and published their results. It is managed in trust by an international Board of Trustees; at its peak is a Managing Director ( Executive Director).
Is the headquarters of the Institute today Geneva ( Switzerland ), where the organization has its postal address at the Palais des Nations. In fact, the office building of the organization are located directly outside the Geneva city limits, in the district of the municipality Châteleine Vernier at the Maison Internationale de l' Environnement (International Environment House ), in which various UN organizations (eg UNEP and UNDP) and NGOs are housed.
The working language of the Institute is predominantly English. Communication with partners and training events are held in other languages.
Training
The Institute organizes courses, seminars and workshops as education and training. The courses are held either as classroom seminars or increasingly as online courses. The staff of the Institute even then, if appropriate together materials, as lecturers, external experts are engaged for the theme. The events, the Institute works in part with local partners, some courses are also organized specifically at the request of partners.
The events are aimed primarily at administrative staff in developing countries and thus especially to government officials and diplomats, in part, to professors. Main topics are mainly diplomacy and peacemaking, environmental law, debt restructuring, financial management and negotiations, disposal of chemical waste, climate change and other environmental protection issues.
The Institute, together with the Project Office of the United Nations Development Programme and the program by UNOSAT ( UNITAR Operational Satellite Applications Programme). UNOSAT provides satellite photos ready for disaster relief and evaluates them. Project partners are ESA, CNES (France), CERN, the French and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as private companies such as EUSI. UNOSAT is based at CERN in Geneva.
By the end of 1998, more than 36,000 participants took part in events organized by the Research and Training Institute of the United Nations from about 180 countries. Since then the number has again increased by several thousand participants, as can be achieved through online courses to a larger audience without large additional costs today. In 2003 alone, the Institute organized about 150 different ( classroom and online ) training courses, in 2004 alone there were 10,000 participants - and rising.
History
End of 1962, the General Assembly requested the United Nations to consider the Secretary-General of the United Nations, whether the creation of a research and training institute of the United Nations is desirable and feasible. The Institute should be funded by voluntary private and public funds ( the Netherlands had already pledged $ 1 million ). The Institute should staff in particular from developing countries for missions to the United Nations - to train as well as for national tasks and carry out research and seminars on the operations of the United Nations and specialized organizations - both for administrative and operational tasks at headquarters and in field operations.
On 11 December 1963, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 1934 on (XVIII ), which asked the Secretary-General to establish a corresponding research and training institute. Two years later, the General Assembly confirmed the creation of the Institute, which has since been referred to as his final English name, and advocated that the Institute should still begin its work this year. At the same time other donors were invited to provide financial assistance and requested annual reports of the institute 's managing director at the General Assembly.
The Training and Research Institute of the United Nations was founded, in fact, in 1965 and grew in the following decades up to about 300 employees in the late 80s or early 90s. In Geneva, a branch office was opened.
Due to efficiency problems and debt, the Institute was restructured on April 8, 1993, pursuant to the resolution 47/ 227 of the General Assembly: the previous headquarters in New York was closed, sold the New York building for debt repayment and reduced the institute to the previous branch in Geneva. The local line (1992-2007 Marcel Boisard ) took over the management of the entire Institute. In the same train of the research activity has been greatly reduced and largely limited to issues which directly training. The focus is on the training since then.
In New York, an office was soon reopened, which serves as a liaison office for the United Nations Headquarters and only to a very limited extent even offering training events - especially introductions to the UN system for new UN diplomats in New York. Started in 2001 in partnership with the Hiroshima Prefecture (Japan), a pilot project that led to the opening of an office of research and training institute in Hiroshima 2003; office organizes courses in the Asian and Pacific region. Since 2006 there is a new branch in Port Harcourt (Niger Delta ) in Nigeria, which largely specializes in seminars for the Nigerian oil industry.
Since the restructuring of the research and training institute is growing both in its workforce and in its projects: The number of training events took from 1991 to 2003 from about 40 to about 150 to. At the same time increased the number of participants, in some subject areas yet supported by the possibilities of online classes from 1991 to 2004 from about 2,000 to 10,000.
In early 2007 sparked Carlos Lopes previous CEO ( Executive Director) Boisard at the top of the organization from. He has plans to strengthen the research area again next to the training program currently in existence.