With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in full swing, maybe you were wondering why Russian athletes are competing as Russian Olympic Committee and wanted to find out more about, say, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) or the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Well, with the Yearbook of International Organizations Online, you can do just that!
The database has multiple search capabilities, including by the name or acronym of the organization itself; by geography; by type or subject matter of the organization, etc; even searching by location of past and future meetings is an option! There are also indexes that allow users to browse by geography and subject matter.
Looking up WADA in the Yearbook gives you information such as its founding date, history, and aims; and a timeline of events (including events preceding the founding of the organization, if appropriate; for example, in WADA’s case, while the organization was founded in 2000, the timeline includes the February 2, 1999 World Conference on Doping in Sport, which helped bring about the founding of WADA). Other information includes the organization’s structure, the number of staff, its official language(s), locations of regional offices, relationships with other organizations, and more. A subject index on the organization page allows users to easily find other organizations involved in the same or similar topics. A list of regular publications, if any, issued by the organization is also included. Finally, both inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are included.
So, if your research requires looking into IGOs and NGOs occupying a certain space in international law, Yearbook of International Organizations Online is a good place to start and to familiarize yourself with the major players on the world stage.
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