{"id":214796,"date":"2019-04-23T16:23:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T20:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&#038;p=214796"},"modified":"2024-08-16T17:58:48","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T21:58:48","slug":"the-origins-of-the-un-information-system-on-the-question-of-palestine-unispal-information-note","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/the-origins-of-the-un-information-system-on-the-question-of-palestine-unispal-information-note\/","title":{"rendered":"The Origins of the UN Information System on the Question of Palestine (UNISPAL) \u2013 Information Note"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:3600,&quot;335559737&quot;:252,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240,&quot;335572071&quot;:6,&quot;335572072&quot;:0,&quot;335572073&quot;:16777215,&quot;335572075&quot;:6,&quot;335572076&quot;:0,&quot;335572077&quot;:16777215,&quot;335572079&quot;:6,&quot;335572080&quot;:0,&quot;335572081&quot;:16777215,&quot;335572083&quot;:6,&quot;335572084&quot;:0,&quot;335572085&quot;:16777215,&quot;469789798&quot;:&quot;single&quot;,&quot;469789802&quot;:&quot;single&quot;,&quot;469789806&quot;:&quot;single&quot;,&quot;469789810&quot;:&quot;single&quot;}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Information note<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:2,&quot;335551620&quot;:2,&quot;335559737&quot;:-108,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">UNISPAL<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> is the world\u2019s largest online repository of documents on the question of Palestine. The unique UN-run information system collects and makes available UN and external documents on the issue to a range of stakeholders from diplomats to scholars and students and is considered one of the largest focused repositories on the internet.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Origins<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335557856&quot;:14994616,&quot;335559685&quot;:1440,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276,&quot;335559991&quot;:1440}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">By 1990, there were increasing demands on the UN Secretariat to monitor political and other relevant developments, conduct research, and prepare studies and on the question of Palestine.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">On 11 December 1991, acting on the recommendation of its Palestinian Rights Committee, and following a feasibility study, the General Assembly passed resolution <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-184749\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">46\/74<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> B which specifically requested that the Secretary-General provide the Division for Palestinian Rights (DPR) of the Secretariat with necessary resources, including a computer-based information system.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">On 11 December 1992, in resolution <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-189312\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">47\/64<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to provide DPR with resources to strengthen its programme of research, studies and publications, through the establishment of an adequately staffed and equipped computer-based information system<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">1<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. The UNISPAL system was operational by 1994.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe title=\"Largest document collection on the question of Palestine - UNISPAL\" width=\"1320\" height=\"743\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bp4OeHc6Wkk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Political context<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335557856&quot;:14994616,&quot;335559685&quot;:1440,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276,&quot;335559991&quot;:1440}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">UNISPAL\u2019s origins are simultaneous to the increased international interest in the question of Palestine starting in 1991. In the wake of the Gulf War and the first <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Intifada<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, changing regional dynamics spurred momentum in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process leading to the 1991 Madrid conference and culminating in the 1993 Oslo Accords.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Technical decisions and evolution<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335557856&quot;:14994616,&quot;335559685&quot;:1440,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276,&quot;335559991&quot;:1440}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">UNISPAL was envisaged as an all-encompassing system with multiple functions: acting as a repository of documents on the question of Palestine, managing expert bios for conferences organized by the Palestinian Rights Committee, acting as an NGOs database and as a source of information for the Division of Palestinian Rights\u2019 publications. By 1994, documents were posted onto \u201cbulletin boards\u201d for easy retrieval. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In 1995, a UNISPAL task force in DPR decided that minimum coverage for the database would entail all Palestinian Rights Committee documents. Given the burden of scanning and uploading historical documents in addition to new ones, the UN Dag Hammarskjold Library assisted with the digitization of most of the historical documents.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In 1995, UNISPAL was made available to all UN staff and Permanent Missions to the UN via the UN\u2019s Local Area Network.\u00a0 By 1997, UNISPAL was accessible to users worldwide via a web browser. The URL for the UNISPAL website became www.unispal.un.org. Once online access was complete, DPR focused on making the site bilingual (in English and French). Some documents were converted into PDFs prior to upload, creating for the first time \u201cAttachments\u201d to online entries and thus improving not only readability but also users\u2019 ability to download the documents.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">How UNISPAL changed UN work on the question of Palestine<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335557856&quot;:14994616,&quot;335559685&quot;:1440,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276,&quot;335559991&quot;:1440}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Over the two and half decades of its existence, UNISPAL effectively streamlined and simplified the labour-intensive information monitoring and cataloguing functions for the voluminous documentation on the question of Palestine. UNISPAL and other related databases also served to revitalize other aspects of the Committee\u2019s mandate, such as outreach to NGOs and promotion of its international meetings. The system has allowed processing of large amount of information from NGO profiles, newsletters, programmes and reports. Even at its inception in 1992, UNISPAL enabled the speedy update and easy retrieval of the Committee\u2019s extensive records including a mailing list of about 1,000 NGOs and 500 biographical notes. UNISPAL\u2019s storage of updated bios, and of conclusions and recommendations of each seminar proved valuable for meetings and international conferences organized by the Committee.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Today, UNISPAL has become the go-to site both internally in the UN as well as externally for all documents related to the question of Palestine.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">UNISPAL: Looking ahead<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335557856&quot;:14994616,&quot;335559685&quot;:1440,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276,&quot;335559991&quot;:1440}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">UNISPAL was envisioned as an all-encompassing Information Management System. Over the years, several of UNISPAL\u2019s original components \u2013 the database of expert bios, the NGOs database, the mailing lists for international meetings, the Publications programme, and the repository of documents have developed independently but remain part of a comprehensive whole.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Since October 2018, work has continued to make the system as efficient as possible. As of June 2024, data from the old system has been fully migrated into a more technologically upgraded database. Also, efforts are being made to ensure full multilingualism of the website. While the website\u2019s static content is already multilingual, the ongoing efforts would ensure that dynamic content &#8211; such as meeting announcements &#8211; would also be available hereafter in all six official languages of the UN (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish). This would revitalize the original vision of UNISPAL and keep it an indispensable tool for all that are interested in the question of Palestine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:3,&quot;335551620&quot;:3,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Information note\u00a0 UNISPAL is the world\u2019s largest online repository of documents on the question of Palestine. The unique UN-run information system collects and makes available UN and external documents on the issue to a range of stakeholders from diplomats to scholars and students and is considered one of the largest focused repositories on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/the-origins-of-the-un-information-system-on-the-question-of-palestine-unispal-information-note\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[3009,2857],"document-source":[2173],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2281,2145],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-214796","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-flyer","document-category-information-note","document-source-division-for-palestinian-rights-dpr","document-subject-history","document-subject-public-information","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/214796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/214796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300212,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/214796\/revisions\/300212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=214796"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=214796"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=214796"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=214796"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=214796"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=214796"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=214796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}