About Us

History and mandate

UNSCEAR was established by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1955. Its mandate in the United Nations system is to assess and report levels and effects of exposure to ionizing radiation. Governments and organizations throughout the world rely on the Committee's estimates as the scientific basis for evaluating radiation risk and for establishing protective measures.  >>more

Committee members

The General Assembly has designated 21 countries to provide scientists as members of the Committee.   >>more

Reports

Since its inception, UNSCEAR has issued only 17 major publications, but these authoritative reports are principal sources of information.  >>more

Programme of work

The Committee's programme of work is approved by the General Assembly, and extends typically over a 4-5 year period. The secretariat collates relevant data submitted by UN Member States, international organizations and non-governmental organizations, and engages specialists to analyse those data, to study relevant scientific literature and produce scientific evaluations. The secretariat submits the evaluations annually for scrutiny to each session of UNSCEAR, and at the end of the cycle, the substantive reviews are published.

Annual Sessions

The Committee has held fifty-six annual sessions so far.  The fifty-seventh session will take place in Vienna 16-20 August 2010.  >>more

Secretariat

The small secretariat in Vienna, which is functionally linked to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), organizes the annual sessions and manages the preparation of documents for the Committee's scrutiny.