What is the UN?
- There are 50 Representatives from 50 different countries
- They set out the rights and obligations of member states
- They maintain international peace and security
- Help solve international economic, social cultural and humanitarian problems.
The Role of the UN
The powers and functions of the UN are:
“To maintain international peace and security in accordance with the principals and the purposes of the United Nations”.
“To investigate any dispute or situation which could lead to international friction”.
“ To formulate plans for the establishment of a system to regulate armaments”.
“To recommend methods of adjusting such disputes or the terms of settlement”.
“To take military action against an aggressor”.
“To recommend the admission of new members”.
There are more roles than this but they mainly fit into the ones I have mentioned above.
The Structure
There are six principals of the United Nations they are:
- The General Assembly
- Security Council
- Economic and Social Council
- Trusteeship Council
- International Court of Justice and Secretariat
How decisions have affected the UK Public Services
Many decisions have affected the European union and a fact is that new laws and regulations passed by the British parliament are brought into the UK because the EU has passed similar laws in Brussels.
Three acts, which were passed on and are true are:
- The Antisocial behaviour Act 2003, in which the police have a duty as a public service to exercise their functions compatibility with the European conventions.
- The Criminal Justice Act 2003, where the section on the trade in endangered species follows the European Council Regulation on the protection of species.
The UK public services are most immediately affected by European decisions are:
- The police are affected by Human Rights Act 1998
- The Police and customs are affected by European crime fighting initiatives such as Europol.
- The Prison service is also affected by the Human rights act.
Many recent British laws affecting public service laws have come from European Laws.
A good example of the Public Services being affected is when the Red Cross set up a Sangatte refugee camp in a warehouse near Calais in 1999. Forty five thousand refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East passed through their way through the camp on the way to Britain and eight five percent stayed in Britain. Complaints from the UK were maid and the French government closed the camp only to say that Britain will take the remainder off the refuges still within the camp.
The immediate effects on the Public Services was that more policing was needed on the channel ports, More work for the immigration officers to process the immigrants documents and more work for the National Asylum Support Service who organise accommodation and supply vouchers to the asylum seekers. I found this information from the National Public Services book by Nick Cullingworth.
Sahil Rattan
