1.
United Nations Secretariat Building
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The United Nations Secretariat Building is a 154 m tall skyscraper and the centerpiece of the headquarters of the United Nations, located in the Turtle Bay area of Manhattan, in New York City. The lot where the stands is considered United Nations territory. It is the first skyscraper in New York City to use a curtain wall and it has 39 stories and was completed in 1952. The building was designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and this building is connected to the Conference Building to the north that houses the General Assembly, the Security Council, among others, and a library building to the south. The building houses the administrative functions of the UN, including day-to-day duties such as finance, as part of the UN complex, the building is subject to an agreement between the United Nations and its host country, the United States. The UN Secretariat Building was renovated, starting in May 2010, on October 29,2012, the basement of the UN complex was flooded due to Hurricane Sandy, leading to a three-day closure and the relocation of several offices. The building style has inspired some notable copies, including the Headquarters of South Lanarkshire Council in Hamilton, Scotland, list of tallest buildings in New York City Dag Hammarskjöld Library Notes Further reading Stichweh, Dirk. United Nations Visitors Centre United Nations Headquarters on Facebook
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Headquarters of the United Nations
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The headquarters of the United Nations is a complex in New York City designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. The complex has served as the headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1952. It is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River and its borders are First Avenue on the west, East 42nd Street to the south, East 48th Street on the north and the East River to the east. The term Turtle Bay is occasionally used as a metonym for the UN headquarters or for the United Nations as a whole, the United Nations has three additional, subsidiary, regional headquarters, or headquarters districts. These were opened in Geneva in 1946, Vienna in 1980 and they are technically extraterritorial through a treaty agreement with the U. S. government. However, in exchange for police, fire protection and other services, the United Nations agrees to acknowledge most local, state. The United Nations Headquarters complex was constructed in stages with the complex completed between 1948 and 1952. The US$8.5 million purchase was funded by his father, John D. Rockefeller. The Rockefeller family owned the Tudor City Apartments across First Avenue from the site, Wallace Harrison, the personal architectural adviser for the Rockefeller family and brother-in-law to a Rockefeller daughter, served as the Director of Planning for the United Nations Headquarters. His firm, Harrison and Abramovitz, oversaw the execution of the design, the property was originally a slaughterhouse before the donation took place, bordered on one side by the Rockefeller owned Tudor City Apartments. While the United Nations had dreamed of constructing an independent city for its new world capital, the diminutive site on the East River necessitated a Rockefeller Center-type vertical complex, thus, it was a given that the Secretariat would be housed in a tall office tower. During daily meetings from February to June 1947, the team produced at least 45 designs and variations. Rather than hold a competition for the design of the facilities for the headquarters, the American architect Wallace K. Harrison was named as Director of Planning, and a Board of Design Consultants was composed of architects, planners and engineers nominated by member governments. Niemeyer met with Corbusier at the latters request shortly after the arrived in New York City. Corbusier had already been lobbying hard to promote his own scheme 23, instead, he asked the younger architect to assist him with his project. Niemeyer began to absent himself from the meetings, only after Wallace Harrison and Max Abramovitz repeatedly pressed him to participate did Niemeyer agree to submit his own project. This would not split the site, but on the contrary, after much discussion, Harrison, who coordinated the meetings, determined that a design based on Niemeyers project 32 and Le Corbusiers project 23 would be developed for the final project. The complex as built, however, repositioned Niemeyers General Assembly building to the north of this tripartite composition and this plan included a public plaza as well
3.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
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Secretary-General of the United Nations
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The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General serves as the administrative officer of the United Nations. The role of the United Nations Secretariat, and of the Secretary-General in particular, is out by Chapter XV of the United Nations Charter. As of 2017, the Secretary-General is António Guterres, appointed by the General Assembly on 13 October 2016, according to the UN website, their roles are further defined as diplomat and advocate, civil servant, and CEO. Nevertheless, this more abstract description has not prevented the office holders from speaking out, responsibilities of the Secretary-General are further outlined in Articles 98 through 100. They are also responsible for making a report to the General Assembly. According to Article 99, they may notify the Security Council on matters which in their opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace, other than these few guidelines, little else is dictated by the Charter. Interpretation of the Charter has varied between Secretaries-General, with some being more active than others. The Secretary-General is highly dependent upon the support of the states of the UN. The personal skills of the Secretary-General and their staff are crucial to their function, the central position of the UN headquarters in the international diplomatic network is also an important asset. The Secretary-General has the right to place any dispute on the agenda of the Security Council. However, they work mostly behind the scenes if the members of the council are unwilling to discuss a dispute. Most of their time is spent on good offices missions and mediation, sometimes at the request of deliberative organs of the UN and their function may be replaced or supplemented by mediation efforts by the major powers. UN peacekeeping missions are often linked to mediation. The recent improvement in relations between the permanent members of the Security Council has strengthened the role of the Secretary-General as the worlds most reputable intermediary, in the early 1960s, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev led an effort to abolish the Secretary-General position. Khrushchev proposed to replace the Secretary-General with a three-person leading council, one member from the West, one from the Eastern Bloc and this idea failed because the neutral powers failed to back the Soviet proposal. Article 97 of the United Nations Charter determines that the Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council, as the recommendation must come from the Security Council, any of the five permanent members of the Council can veto a nomination. Most Secretaries-General are compromise candidates from middle powers and have little prior fame, unofficial qualifications for the job have been set by precedent in previous selections
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Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
6.
United Nations
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The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
7.
United Nations Security Council
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The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946. Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created following World War II to address the failings of an international organization. The Security Council consists of fifteen members, the great powers that were the victors of World War II—the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, Republic of China, and the United States—serve as the bodys five permanent members. These permanent members can veto any substantive Security Council resolution, including those on the admission of new member states or candidates for Secretary-General, the Security Council also has 10 non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis to serve two-year terms. The bodys presidency rotates monthly among its members, Security Council resolutions are typically enforced by UN peacekeepers, military forces voluntarily provided by member states and funded independently of the main UN budget. As of 2016,103,510 peacekeeping soldiers and 16,471 civilians are deployed on 16 peacekeeping operations and 1 special political mission. Following the catastrophic loss of life in World War I, the Paris Peace Conference established the League of Nations to maintain harmony between the nations, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. The term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. The most contentious issue at Dumbarton and in successive talks proved to be the rights of permanent members. At the conference, H. V. Evatt of the Australian delegation pushed to further restrict the power of Security Council permanent members. Due to the fear that rejecting the strong veto would cause the conferences failure, the UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. On 17 January 1946, the Security Council met for the first time at Church House, Westminster, in London, United Kingdom. The Security Council was largely paralysed in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and USSR and their allies, and the Council generally was only able to intervene in unrelated conflicts. Cold War divisions also paralysed the Security Councils Military Staff Committee, the committee continued to exist on paper but largely abandoned its work in the mid-1950s. By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its budget for peacekeeping. After the Cold War, the UN saw an expansion in its peacekeeping duties. Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, undersecretary-General Brian Urquhart later described the hopes raised by these successes as a false renaissance for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed. In 1994, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan Genocide in the face of Security Council indecision, in the late 1990s, UN-authorised international interventions took a wider variety of forms
8.
United Nations General Assembly
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The United Nations General Assembly is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation. The General Assembly is the deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN. It has also established a number of subsidiary organs. It can also reconvene for special and emergency special sessions and its composition, functions, powers, voting, and procedures are set out in Chapter IV of the United Nations Charter. The first session was convened on 10 January 1946 in the Methodist Central Hall in London, other questions are decided by a straightforward majority. Each member country has one vote, apart from approval of budgetary matters, including adoption of a scale of assessment, Assembly resolutions are not binding on the members. The Assembly may make recommendations on any matters within the scope of the UN, except matters of peace, the one state, one vote power structure potentially allows states comprising just five percent of the world population to pass a resolution by a two-thirds vote. During the 1980s, the Assembly became a forum for the North-South dialogue and these issues came to the fore because of the phenomenal growth and changing makeup of the UN membership. In 1945, the UN had 51 members and it now has 193, of which more than two-thirds are developing countries. Because of their numbers, developing countries are able to determine the agenda of the Assembly, the character of its debates. For many developing countries, the UN is the source of much of their diplomatic influence, the Assembly can consider the matter immediately with a view to making recommendations to Members for collective measures to maintain or restore international peace and security. The first session of the UN General Assembly was convened on 10 January 1946 in the Methodist Central Hall in London, the next few annual sessions were held in different cities, the second session in New York, and the third session was in Paris. It moved to the permanent United Nations Headquarters in New York at the start of its seventh regular annual session, on 14 October 1952. In December 1988, in order to hear Yasser Arafat, the General Assembly organised its 29th session in the Palace of Nations, all 193 members states of the United Nations are members of the General Assembly. The agenda for each session is planned up to seven months in advance and this is refined into a provisional agenda 60 days before the opening of the session. Items on the agenda are numbered, the General Assembly votes on many resolutions brought forth by sponsoring states. These are generally statements symbolizing the sense of the community about an array of world issues. Most General Assembly resolutions are not enforceable as a legal or practical matter, the General Assembly has authority to make final decisions in some areas such as the United Nations budget
9.
International Court of Justice
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The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial branch of the United Nations. Established in 1945 by the UN Charter, the Court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice, the Statute of the International Court of Justice, similar to that of its predecessor, is the main constitutional document constituting and regulating the Court. The Courts workload covers a range of judicial activity. Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter authorizes the UN Security Council to enforce Court rulings, however, such enforcement is subject to the veto power of the five permanent members of the Council, which the United States used in the Nicaragua case. The election process is set out in Articles 4–19 of the ICJ statute, elections are staggered, with five judges elected every three years to ensure continuity within the court. Should a judge die in office, the practice has generally been to elect a judge in an election to complete the term. No two judges may be nationals of the same country, according to Article 9, the membership of the Court is supposed to represent the main forms of civilization and of the principal legal systems of the world. Essentially, that has meant common law, civil law and socialist law, the exception was China, which did not have a judge on the Court from 1967 to 1985 because it did not put forward a candidate. Judicial independence is dealt with specifically in Articles 16–18, judges of the ICJ are not able to hold any other post or act as counsel. A judge can be dismissed only by a vote of the other members of the Court. Despite these provisions, the independence of ICJ judges has been questioned, judges may deliver joint judgments or give their own separate opinions. Judges may also deliver separate dissenting opinions, Article 31 of the statute sets out a procedure whereby ad hoc judges sit on contentious cases before the Court. The system allows any party to a case if it otherwise does not have one of that partys nationals sitting on the Court to select one additional person to sit as a judge on that case only. It is thus possible that as many as seventeen judges may sit on one case, the system may seem strange when compared with domestic court processes, but its purpose is to encourage states to submit cases. Although this system does not sit well with the nature of the body. Ad hoc judges usually vote in favor of the state that appointed them, generally, the Court sits as full bench, but in the last fifteen years, it has on occasion sat as a chamber. Articles 26–29 of the statute allow the Court to form smaller chambers, usually 3 or 5 judges, Two types of chambers are contemplated by Article 26, firstly, chambers for special categories of cases, and second, the formation of ad hoc chambers to hear particular disputes. In 1993, a chamber was established, under Article 26 of the ICJ statute
10.
United Nations Economic and Social Council
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The ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to member states and the United Nations system. A number of organisations have been granted consultative status to the Council to participate in the work of the United Nations. The president is elected for a term and chosen from the small or mid-sized powers represented on the ECOSOC. His Excellency Frederick Musiiwa Makamure Shava was elected seventy-second President of the Economic, Ambassador Shava is currently the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Zimbabwe to the United Nations in New York. The Council has 54 member states out of the 193 UN member states, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon added, Rather than viewing growth and sustainability as competing goals on a collision course, we must see them as complementary and mutually supportive imperatives. The report concluded that Business as usual is not an option, governance of the multilateral system has historically been complex and fragmented. This has limited the capacity of the ECOSOC to influence policies in trade, finance. Reform proposals aim to enhance the relevance and contribution of the council, a major reform was approved by the 2005 World Summit on the basis of proposals submitted by secretary-general Kofi Annan. At the Summit it was decided to hold annual ministerial-level substantive reviews to assess progress in achieving internationally agreed development goals. These Annual Ministeral Reviews will be replaced by the High Level Political Forum from 2016 onwards after the new post-MDG/Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals are agreed. Subsequent proposals by the High-Level Panel Report on System-Wide Coherence in November 2006 aimed to establish a forum within the ECOSOC as a counter-model to the clubs of the G8. The Forum was to comprise 27 heads of state to meet annually and this proposal, however, was not approved by the General Assembly. The Economic and Social Council Chamber in the United Nations Conference Building was a gift from Sweden and it was conceived by Swedish architect Sven Markelius, one of the 11 architects in the international team that designed the UN headquarters. Wood from Swedish pine trees was used in the area for the railings
11.
United Nations Trusteeship Council
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The last was Palau, formerly part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which became a member state of the United Nations in December 1994. Those dependent territories were to be placed under the international trusteeship system created by the United Nations Charter as a successor to the League of Nations mandate system, ultimately, eleven territories were placed under trusteeship, seven in Africa and four in Oceania. Ten of the trust territories had previously been League of Nations mandates, the Trusteeship Council held its first session in March 1947. In March 1948, the United States proposed that the territory of Mandatory Palestine be placed under UN Trusteeship with the termination of the British Mandate in May 1948. However, the US did not make an effort to implement this proposal, under the Charter, the Trusteeship Council was to consist of an equal number of United Nations Member States administering trust territories and non-administering states. Thus, the Council was to consist of all U. N, over time, as trust territories attained independence, the size and workload of the Trusteeship Council was reduced and ultimately came to include only the five permanent Security Council members. The chamber itself is used for other purposes. Following a three-year refurbishment, restoring its original design by Danish architect, Finn Juhl, the formal elimination of the Trusteeship Council would require the revision of the UN Charter, which is why it has not been pursued. Other functions for the Trusteeship Council have been considered, the Commission on Global Governances 1995 report recommends an expansion of the trusteeship council. However, in March 2005, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed a reform of the United Nations. As this restructuring would involve significant changes to the UN charter, United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories Homepage of the UN Trusteeship Council UN Decolonization page
12.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
13.
United Nations Department of Political Affairs
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DPA also oversees UN electoral assistance to Member States of the organization. The Under-Secretary manages the department, advises the Secretary-General on matters affecting global peace and security, B. Lynn Pascoe - 2007-2012 Ibrahim Gambari - 2005-2007 Kieran Prendergast - 1998-2005 Marrack Goulding - 1993-1997 James O. C. Development and humanitarian entities on the ground, political missions are part of a continuum of UN peace operations working in different stages of the conflict cycle. In other instances, U. N. peacekeeping operations have given way to special political missions overseeing longer term peace-building activities and these currently include UN envoys or special advisers for Cyprus, Yemen, Syria, Western Sahara, and the Macedonian-Greek naming dispute. Investigative Mandates and Fact-Finding Missions DPA has also assisted in establishing and providing support to various UN investigative and fact-finding bodies
14.
United Nations peacekeeping
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It is distinguished from both peacebuilding, peacemaking, and peace enforcement. Peacekeepers monitor and observe peace processes in post-conflict areas and assist ex-combatants in implementing the agreements they may have signed. Such assistance comes in forms, including confidence-building measures, power-sharing arrangements, electoral support, strengthening the rule of law. Accordingly, UN peacekeepers can include soldiers, police officers, the United Nations Charter gives the United Nations Security Council the power and responsibility to take collective action to maintain international peace and security. For this reason, the community usually looks to the Security Council to authorize peacekeeping operations through Chapter VI authorizations. Most of these operations are established and implemented by the United Nations itself, in these cases, peacekeepers remain members of their respective armed forces, and do not constitute an independent UN army, as the UN does not have such a force. Hervé Ladsous has served as the head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations since 2 September 2011, dPKOs highest level doctrine document, entitled United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, Principles and Guidelines was issued in 2008. Peacekeeping forces are contributed by member states on a voluntary basis, as of 31 December 2013, the total size of the peacekeeping force is 98,200 police, troops, and military experts. European nations contribute nearly 6,000 units to this total, pakistan, India, and Bangladesh are among the largest individual contributors with around 8,000 units each. African nations contributed nearly half the total, almost 44,000 units, every peacekeeping mission is authorized by the Security Council. Once a peace treaty has been negotiated, the parties involved might ask the United Nations for a force to oversee various elements of the agreed upon plan. If the Security Council approves the creation of a mission, then the Department of Peacekeeping Operations begins planning for the necessary elements, at this point, the senior leadership team is selected. The department will then seek contributions from member nations, since the UN has no standing force or supplies, it must form ad hoc coalitions for every task undertaken. Doing so results in both the possibility of failure to form a force, and a general slowdown in procurement once the operation is in the field. You had to make a request for everything you needed, for instance, soldiers everywhere have to eat and drink. In a push system, food and water for the number of soldiers deployed is automatically supplied, in a pull system, you have to ask for those rations, and no common sense seems to ever apply. While the peacekeeping force is being assembled, a variety of activities are being undertaken by UN staff. The exact size and strength of the force must be agreed to by the government of the nation whose territory the conflict is on, the Rules of Engagement must be developed and approved by both the parties involved and the Security Council
15.
United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs
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Its goal is to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and the strengthening of the disarmament regimes in respect to other weapons of mass destruction, chemical and biological weapons. It also promotes disarmament efforts in the area of conventional weapons, especially landmines and small arms, following the retirement of Sergio Duarte in February 2012, Angela Kane of Germany was appointed as the new High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. She was replaced by Kim Won-soo in June 2015, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs had originally been established as a department in 1982 upon the recommendation of the General Assemblys second special session on disarmament. In 1992, it became the Centre for Disarmament Affairs, working under the Department of Political Affairs, at the end of 1997, it reverted to being the Department for Disarmament Affairs. Following the retirement of Sergio Duarte in February 2012, Angela Kane and she is the first woman and first non diplomat appointed to this position. It fosters preventive disarmament measures, such as dialogue, transparency and confidence building on military matters, the latter includes the UN Register of Conventional Arms and regional forums. It also provides information on the United Nations disarmament efforts, RDB further manages three regional centers. The WMD Branch provides substantive support in the area of the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction and it is responsible for substantive conference support on the UN Programme of Action on small arms, the Arms Trade Treaty process, and the UN transparency registers. CAB chairs the UN-internal coordination mechanism on small arms, CASA
16.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
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Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is a member of the United Nations Development Group. The UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes, once in 1954 and again in 1981, following the demise of the League of Nations and the formation of the United Nations the international community was acutely aware of the refugee crisis following the end of World War II. In 1947, the International Refugee Organization was founded by the United Nations, the IRO was the first international agency to deal comprehensively with all aspects of refugees lives. Preceding this was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which was established in 1944 to address the millions of people displaced across Europe as a result of World War II. In the late 1940s, the IRO fell out of favor, however, the organization was only intended to operate for 3 years, from January 1951, due to the disagreement of many UN member states over the implications of a permanent body. UNHCRs mandate was set out in its statute, annexed to resolution 428 of the United Nations General Assembly of 1950. This mandate has been broadened by numerous resolutions of the General Assembly and its Economic. According to UNHCR, mandate is to provide, on a non-political and humanitarian basis, international protection to refugees, soon after the signing of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, it became clear that refugees were not solely restricted to Europe. In 1956, UNHCR was involved in coordinating the response to the uprising in Hungary, the responses marked the beginning of a wider, global mandate in refugee protection and humanitarian assistance. By the end of the decade, two-thirds of UNHCRs budget was focused on operations in Africa and in just one decade, the organizations focus had shifted from an almost exclusive focus on Europe. In 1967, the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees was ratified to remove the geographical and temporal restrictions of UNHCR under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. In the 1970s, UNHCR refugee operations continued to spread around the globe, adding to the woes in Asia was the Vietnam war, with millions fleeing the war-torn country. The 1980s saw new challenges for UNHCR, with member states unwilling to resettle refugees due to the sharp rise in refugee numbers over the 1970s. Often, these refugees were not fleeing wars between states, but inter-ethnic conflict in newly independent states, the targeting of civilians as military strategy added to the displacement in many nations, so even minor conflicts could result in a large number of displaced persons. As a result, the UNHCR became more involved with assistance programs within refugee camps. The end of the Cold War marked continued inter-ethnic conflict and contributed heavily to refugee flight, UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 and succeeded the earlier United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. UNHCR maintains a database of information, ProGres, which was created during the Kosovo War in the 1990s
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United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
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It is a member of the United Nations Development Group and was renamed the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in 2002. In 2016 -2017 it has a biannual budget of US$700 million. The agency, employing between 1,500 and 2,000 people worldwide, has its headquarters in Vienna, with 21 field offices, the United Nations Secretary-General appoints the agencys Executive Director. Approximately 90% of the Offices funding comes from contributions, mainly from governments. UNODC incorporates the secretariat of the International Narcotics Control Board, the World Drug Report is a yearly publication that presents a comprehensive assessment of the international drug problem, with detailed information on the illicit drug situation. It provides estimates and information on trends in the production, trafficking and use of opium/heroin, coca/cocaine, cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants. The Report, based on data and estimates collected or prepared by Governments, UNODC and other international institutions, United Nations Conventions and their related Protocols underpin all the operational work of UNODC. Another objective of the protocol is to protect the victims of trafficking in persons with full respect, the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air is concerned with the aggravating problem of organized crime groups for smuggling persons. The protocol aims to combat and prevent transnational smuggling as well as to promote cooperative measures for enhancing protective measures for victims. By adopting the protocol, the member states commit to adopt domestic criminal offences for illegal manufacturing, providing governmental licensing ammunition, the text of the Convention was negotiated during seven sessions held between 21 January 2002 and 1 October 2003. The Convention was adopted by the General Assembly on 31 October 2003, in 2003, the United Nations adopted the UN Convention against Corruption. The Convention came into force in December 2005, as of 9 November 2012,140 countries had signed and 164 countries had ratified the UNCAC. UNODC serves as the Secretariat for the Conference of the States Parties to the UNCAC, there are three drug related treaties that guide UNODCs drug related programs. These three major drug control treaties are mutually supportive and complementary. They also include provisions on trafficking and drug abuse. UNODC launches campaigns to raise awareness of drugs and crime problems, on 26 June every year, UNODC marks the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. On 9 December every year, UNODC commemorates the International Anti-Corruption Day, the goal of the campaign is to mobilize support and to inspire people to act against drug abuse and trafficking. The campaign encourages people to put their health first and not to take drugs
18.
United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs
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The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is a part of the United Nations Secretariat, located at the United Nations Office in Vienna. In March 2014, the Secretary-General appointed Simonetta Di Pippo as the new Director of the Office, in 1992, the Division was transformed into the Office for Outer Space Affairs within the Department for Political Affairs and was relocated to the United Nations Office at Vienna in 1993. The Office implements the decisions of the United Nations General Assembly, the office has also been helping poor nations suffering from climate change related problems by helping them access satellite images for free. The Office is composed of the Committee, Policy and Legal Affairs headed by Niklas Hedman and these are coordinated by the Office of the Director managed by Simonetta Di Pippo. In order to track of all objects in earth orbit the office manages a searchable online register of objects launched into outer space. The Space Applications Section works on building capacities in the application of space technology. The Programme concentrates its efforts on ensuring the equal access of all countries to new space-based technologies, to facilitate the capacity building with focus on developing countries the office provides three initiatives. The Human Space Initiative was launched 2010 and focuses on the outreach to promote increased awareness among Member States to the benefits of space technology. To support the work of ICG, the Office was designated as the Executive Secretariat of ICG, citizens of more than 50 countries have served as staff members, consultants, and interns. Staff members of the Office have a range of educational backgrounds, including space science, physics, engineering, computer science, political science, international affairs. Before Simonetta Di Pippo became director of the Office in 2014 she was Director of Human Spaceflight at the European Space Agency, Mr. Niklas Hedman serves as Chief of the Committee, Policy and Legal Affairs Section Mr Luc St-Pierre as Chief of the Space Applications Section. In 2009, Takao Doi became Chief of Space Applications, in March 2014, Simonetta Di Pippo became the Director. In September 2016, UNOOSA announced the first-ever United Nations space mission
19.
United Nations Office at Vienna
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The United Nations Office in Vienna is one of the four major UN office sites where several different UN agencies have a joint presence. The office complex is located in Vienna, the capital of Austria, and is part of the Vienna International Centre, the UNOV was established on 1 January 1980, and was the third such office established. At the United Nations Office in Vienna there are many works which are placed in the yard or in corridors. Persian Scholar Pavilion In June 2009 Iran donated a pavilion to United Nations Office in Vienna which is placed in the central Memorial Plaza of the Vienna International Center. The Persian Scholars Pavilion at United Nations in Vienna, Austria is featuring the statues of four prominent Persian figures, United Nations headquarters United Nations Office at Geneva United Nations Office at Nairobi United Nations Office in Vienna
20.
United Nations Secretariat
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The Secretariat is the United Nations executive arm. The Secretariat has an important role in setting the agenda for the UNs deliberative and decision making bodies of the UN, Secretary-General, who is appointed by the General Assembly, is the head of the secretariat. The mandate of the secretariat is a wide one and it can, in proper forms, take initiatives. It can put before member governments findings which will influence their actions, the United Nations Department of Political Affairs, which has a role analogous to a ministry of foreign affairs, is a part of the secretariat. So is the department of United Nations Peace Keeping Operations, the Secretariat has 44,000 international civil servants. Eligibility for civil service is based on a UN-administered examination offered worldwide, qualifications for membership include the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity, according to the UN Charter. Staff-members are appointed by the Secretary-General alone and are assigned to the organs of the United Nations, staff members are appointed on a temporary or permanent basis, under the discretion of the Secretary-General. During staff recruitment, geographical variety is an especially prominent selection factor in order to reflect the scope of member states present in the UN. Headquartered in New York, the Secretariat functions through duty stations in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Geneva, Nairobi, Santiago and Vienna, the most overrepresented states in the Secretariat are small, rich democracies. The Nordic states stand out, in particular, when it comes to overrepresentation, since 1984, the UN Secretariat, in order to achieve early Gender Equality, issued several five year “Action Plans, including Strategic Plans, to improve the status of women in the Secretariat. These plans, however, did not have the desired impact, in Feb 2004, gender Parity target for the secretariat was once again revised to 2015. In 2009, despite the plans, and GA resolutions, the representation of women in the UN Secretariat remained well below parity at 29.2 percent, the representation of Womens in the UN secretariat, at the D1 level, in 2000, was 30.3 percent. At the current rate of progress, it is estimated that gender parity at the D-1 to higher levels will be achieved after 102 years. At D2 level The representation of women in 2011 was 24. and that Special measures would remain in effect until the “goal of gender parity is achieved, key Secretariat offices in this area include the Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter that, in his or her opinion, may threaten international peace, the Secretariat is divided into offices and departments. On 21 March 2005, Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed several reforms for the Secretariat and he announced his intentions to appoint a Scientific Adviser, create a peacebuilding support office, establish a cabinet-style decision-making mechanism, and strengthen the mediation function. United States Department of State – UN Division The Four Nations Initiative
21.
United Nations Charter
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The Charter of the United Nations of 1945 is the foundational treaty of the United Nations, an intergovernmental organization. It was signed at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, United States, on 26 June 1945, as a charter, it is a constituent treaty, and all members are bound by its articles. Furthermore, Article 103 of the Charter states that obligations to the United Nations prevail over all other treaty obligations, most countries in the world have now ratified the Charter. The Charter consists of a preamble and a series of articles grouped into chapters, the preamble consists of two principal parts. The first part contains a call for the maintenance of peace and international security. Chapter I sets forth the purposes of the United Nations, including the important provisions of the maintenance of international peace, Chapter II defines the criteria for membership in the United Nations. Chapters III–XV, the bulk of the document, describe the organs and institutions of the UN, Chapters XVI and Chapter XVII describe arrangements for integrating the UN with established international law. Chapters XVIII and Chapter XIX provide for amendment and ratification of the Charter, all Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter. All Members shall settle their disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security. Such subsidiary organs as may be found necessary may be established in accordance with the present Charter, the Security Council shall consist of fifteen Members of the United Nations. The non-permanent members of the Security Council shall be elected for a term of two years, a retiring member shall not be eligible for immediate re-election. Each member of the Security Council shall have one representative, FUNCTIONS and POWERS Article 241. In discharging these duties the Security Council shall act in accordance with the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations, the specific powers granted to the Security Council for the discharge of these duties are laid down in Chapters VI, VII, VIII, and XII. The Security Council shall submit annual and, when necessary, special reports to the General Assembly for its consideration, Article 25 The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter. Each member of the Security Council shall have one vote, decisions of the Security Council on procedural matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members. The Security Council shall be so organized as to be able to function continuously, each member of the Security Council shall for this purpose be represented at all times at the seat of the Organization. The Security Council may hold meetings at places other than the seat of the Organization as in its judgment will best facilitate its work. Article 29 The Security Council may establish such subsidiary organs as it deems necessary for the performance of its functions, Article 30 The Security Council shall adopt its own rules of procedure, including the method of selecting its President
22.
Ban Ki-moon
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Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean diplomat who was the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 2007 to December 2016. Before becoming Secretary-General, Ban was a diplomat in South Koreas Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He entered diplomatic service the year he graduated university, accepting his first post in New Delhi. Ban was the minister of South Korea from January 2004 to November 2006. In February 2006 he began to campaign for the office of Secretary-General, Ban was initially considered to be a long shot for the office. As foreign minister of South Korea, however, he was able to travel to all the countries on the United Nations Security Council, on 13 October 2006, he was elected to be the eighth Secretary-General by the United Nations General Assembly. On 1 January 2007, he succeeded Kofi Annan, as Secretary-General, he was responsible for several major reforms on peacekeeping and UN employment practices. Ban was named the worlds 32nd most powerful person by the Forbes list of The Worlds Most Powerful People in 2013, in 2014, he was named the third most powerful South Korean after Lee Kun-hee and Lee Jae-yong. In 2016, Foreign Policy named Ban one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers for his achievement of making the Paris Agreement a legally binding treaty less than a year after it was adopted. António Guterres was appointed by the General Assembly on 13 October 2016 to be the successor of Ban Ki-moon as he stepped down on 31 December 2016. He was widely considered to be a candidate for the 2017 South Korean presidential election, before announcing, on February 1. Ban was born on 13 June 1944 in the farming village of Haengchi, Wonnam Township, in Eumseong County. His family then moved to the town of Chungju, where he grew up. During Bans childhood, his father had a business, but the warehouse went bankrupt. When Ban was six, his family fled to a mountainside for much of the Korean War. After the war ended, his family returned to Chungju, Ban has said that, during this time, he met American soldiers. In secondary school, Ban became a student, particularly in his studies of the English language. In 1962, Ban won an essay contest sponsored by the Red Cross, as part of the trip, Ban met U. S. President John F. Kennedy
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Kofi Annan
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Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize and he is the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela. Born in Kumasi, Annan went on to study economics at Macalester College, international relations from the Graduate Institute Geneva, Annan joined the UN in 1962, working for the World Health Organizations Geneva office. He went on to work in several capacities at the UN Headquarters including serving as the Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping between March 1992 and December 1996 and he was re-elected for a second term in 2001, and was succeeded as Secretary-General by Ban Ki-moon on 1 January 2007. As the Secretary-General, Annan reformed the UN bureaucracy, worked to combat HIV, especially in Africa and he has been criticized for not expanding the Security Council and faced calls for resignation after an investigation into the Oil-for-Food Programme. After leaving the UN, he founded the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2007 to work on international development, in 2012, Annan was the UN–Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria, to help find a resolution to ongoing conflict there. Annan quit after becoming frustrated with the UNs lack of progress with regard to conflict resolution, in September 2016, Annan was appointed to lead a UN commission to investigate the Rohingya crisis. Kofi Annan was born in the Kofandros section of Kumasi in the Gold Coast on 8 April 1938 and his twin sister Efua Atta, who died in 1991, shared the middle name Atta, which in the Akan means twin. Annan and his sister were born one of the countrys Ashanti and Fante aristocratic families. In the Akan names tradition, some children are named according to the day of the week on which they were born, Kofi in Akan is the name that corresponds with Friday. Annan has said his surname rhymes with cannon in English, from 1954 to 1957, Annan attended the elite Mfantsipim school, a Methodist boarding school in Cape Coast founded in the 1870s. Annan has said that the school taught him that suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere, in 1957, the year Annan graduated from Mfantsipim, the Gold Coast gained independence from Britain and began using the name Ghana. In 1958, Annan began studying economics at the Kumasi College of Science and Technology, now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology of Ghana. He received a Ford Foundation grant, enabling him to complete his studies in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. Annan then completed a diplôme détudes approfondies DEA degree in International Relations at The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1961–62. After some years of experience, he studied at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the Sloan Fellows program. Annan is fluent in English, French, Akan, some Kru languages, in 1962, Kofi Annan started working as a Budget Officer for the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations. From 1974 to 1976, he worked as the Director of Tourism in Ghana, in 1980 he became the head of personnel for the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees in Geneva
24.
Cabinet (government)
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A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the top leaders of the executive branch. They are usually called ministers, but in some jurisdictions are sometimes called secretaries, in some countries, the cabinet is called Council of Ministers or Government Council or lesser known names such as Federal Council, Inner Council or High Council. These countries may differ in the way that the cabinet is used or established, in some countries, particularly those that use a parliamentary system, the Cabinet collectively decides the governments direction, especially in regard to legislation passed by the parliament. In this way, the President gets opinions and advice in upcoming decisions, instead, it is usually the Head of Government who holds all means of power in his hands and the Cabinet reports to him. In most governments, members of the Cabinet are given the title of minister, in a few governments, as in the case of Mexico, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and United States, the title of secretary is also used for some Cabinet members. In many countries, a Secretary is a member with an inferior rank to a minister. In some countries attorneys general also sit in the cabinet, while in others this is strictly prohibited as the attorneys general are considered to be part of the judicial branch of government. The size of cabinets varies, although most contain around ten to twenty ministers, researchers have found an inverse correlation between a countrys level of development and cabinet size, on average, the more developed a country is, the smaller is its cabinet. In the United Kingdom and its colonies, cabinets began as smaller sub-groups of the English Privy Council, the term comes from the name for a relatively small and private room used as a study or retreat. The process has repeated itself in recent times, as leaders have felt the need to have a Kitchen Cabinet or sofa government, under the Westminster system, members of the cabinet are Ministers of the Crown who are collectively responsible for all government policy. All ministers, whether senior and in the cabinet or junior ministers, must publicly support the policy of the government, the cabinet may also provide ideas on/if new laws were established, and what they include. Cabinet deliberations are secret and documents dealt with in cabinet are confidential, in theory the prime minister or premier is first among equals. In some countries, the ministers are referred to as spokespersons. A prime ministerial government is a government where the minister is dominant in terms of the executive. As the prime minister is, by definition, a member of a cabinet – this form of government is often a development from cabinet government, in true cabinet government the prime minister is primus inter pares, where prime ministerial government necessitates the crossing of this boundary. An often cited example of ministerial government is the United Kingdom. Thatcher began using bilateral meetings with ministers to determine policy areas using cabinet to simply announce these decisions. Due to the extent of her success, and her control over cabinet positions, despite John Major moving back towards cabinet government, Tony Blair carried on Thatchers approach
25.
Mediation
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All participants in mediation are encouraged to actively participate in the process. Mediation is a process in that it is focused primarily upon the needs, rights. The mediator uses a variety of techniques to guide the process in a constructive direction. A mediator is facilitative in that s/he manages the interaction between parties and facilitates open communication, Mediation is also evaluative in that the mediator analyzes issues and relevant norms, while refraining from providing prescriptive advice to the parties. Mediation, as used in law, is a form of dispute resolution. Typically, a party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate a settlement. Disputants may mediate disputes in a variety of domains, such as commercial, legal, diplomatic, workplace, community, the term mediation broadly refers to any instance in which a third party helps others reach agreement. More specifically, mediation has a structure, timetable and dynamics that ordinary negotiation lacks, the process is private and confidential, possibly enforced by law. The mediator acts as a third party and facilitates rather than directs the process. Mediation is becoming a peaceful and internationally accepted solution in order to end conflict. Mediation can be used to resolve disputes of any magnitude, Mediators use various techniques to open, or improve, dialogue and empathy between disputants, aiming to help the parties reach an agreement. Much depends on the skill and training. As the practice gained popularity, training programs, certifications and licensing followed, producing trained, while a case in the hands of a lawyer or a court may take months or years to resolve, mediation usually achieves a resolution in a matter of hours. Taking less time means expending less money on hourly fees and costs, confidentiality While court hearings are public, mediation remains strictly confidential. No one but the parties to the dispute and the mediator or mediators know what happened, confidentiality in mediation has such importance that in most cases the legal system cannot force a mediator to testify in court as to the content or progress of mediation. Many mediators destroy their notes taken during a mediation once that mediation has finished, the only exceptions to such strict confidentiality usually involve child abuse or actual or threatened criminal acts. Control Mediation increases the control the parties have over the resolution, in a court case, the parties obtain a resolution, but control resides with the judge or jury. Often, a judge or jury cannot legally provide solutions that emerge in mediation, thus, mediation is more likely to produce a result that is mutually agreeable for the parties
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Budget
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A budget is a quantitative expression of a financial plan for a defined period of time. It may include planned sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities, costs and expenses, assets, liabilities and it expresses strategic plans of business units, organizations, activities or events in measurable terms. A budget is the sum of money allocated for a particular purpose, a budget is a quantified financial plan for a forthcoming accounting period. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods. In other terms, a budget is an organizational plan stated in monetary terms and it also helps to co-ordinate the activities of the organization by compelling managers to examine relationships between their own operation and those of other departments. Other essentials of budget include, To control resources To communicate plans to various responsibility center managers, to motivate managers to strive to achieve budget goals. Tools enable the actual operation of the business to be measured against the forecast. Lastly, tools establish the cost constraint for a project, program, on the other hand, if the figures diverge wildly from the budget, this sends an out of control signal, and the share price could suffer. Campaign planners incur two types of cost in any campaign, the first is the cost of human resource necessary to plan, the second type of expense that campaign planners incur is the hard cost of the campaign itself. A budget is a tool for an event director to predict with a reasonable accuracy whether the event will result in a profit. A budget can also be used as a pricing tool, there are two basic approaches or philosophies, when it comes to budgeting. One approach is telling you on mathematical models, and the other on people, the first school of thought believes that financial models, if properly constructed, can be used to predict the future. The focus is on variables, inputs and outputs, drivers, investments of time and money are devoted to perfecting these models, which are typically held in some type of financial spreadsheet application. The other school of thought holds that it’s not about models, no matter how sophisticated models can get, the best information comes from the people in the business. The focus is therefore in engaging the managers in the more fully in the budget process. The companies that adhere to this approach have their managers develop their own budgets, while many companies would say that they do both, in reality the investment of time and money falls squarely in one approach or the other. The budget of a government is a summary or plan of the revenues and expenditures of that government. There are three types of government budget, the operating or current budget, the capital or investment budget, the budget is prepared by the Treasury team led by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and is presented to Parliament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Budget Day
27.
Human resources
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Human resources are the people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, or economy. Human capital is used synonymously with human resources, although human capital typically refers to a more narrow view. Likewise, other terms used include manpower, talent, labour, personnel. Staffing is a process of hiring and or positioning in an organization, a Human Resources Manager has several functions in a company, Determine needs of the staff. Determine to use temporary staff or hire employees to fill these needs, recruit and train the best employees. Manage employee relations, unions and collective bargaining, prepare employee records and personal policies. Manage employee payroll, benefits and compensation, ensure that human resources practices conform to various regulations. Managers need to develop their skills to be effective. Organisations behaviour focuses on how to improve factors that make more effective. Pioneering economist John R. Commons used the human resource in his 1893 book The Distribution of Wealth. The term human resource was subsequently in use during the 1910s and 1920s as was the notion that workers could be seen as a kind of capital asset. Among scholars the first use of resources in its modern form was in a 1958 report by economist E. Wight Bakke. The term began to more developed in the 19th century due to misunderstandings between the employers and employees. If the market is tight, employers must compete for employees by offering financial rewards, community investment, geographical spread, how far is the job from the individual. The distance to travel to work should be in line with remuneration, occupational structure, the norms and values of the different careers within an organization. Mahoney 1989 developed 3 different types of structure, namely, craft, organization career path. Generational difference, different age categories of employees have certain characteristics, for example, their behavior, one major concern about considering people as assets or resources is that they will be commoditized, objectified and abused. Some analysis suggests that human beings are not commodities or resources, the 2000 revision of ISO9001, in contrast, requires identifying the processes, their sequence and interaction, and to define and communicate responsibilities and authorities
28.
Office of Internal Oversight Services
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Specifically, activities include internal audit, investigation, monitoring, evaluation, inspection, reporting and support services to the United Nations Secretariat. Its intended and mandated function is similar to national government audit organisations. It reports not only to the General Assembly, but also to the Secretary-General, the office was established in 1994. Its first head was Under-Secretary-General Karl Theodor Paschke
29.
United Nations Interpretation Service
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The United Nations Interpretation Service is a part of the Meetings and Publishing Division of the UNs Department for General Assembly and Conference Management. Interpretation is essential to the bodies for the proper conduct. Most of the interpreters of the United Nations were natural polyglots who were uprooted by wars. For years, the criterion used to select potential interpreters was the knowledge of two international languages the interpreters had to communicate in. After the 1960s, there was change in the sociological make-up of UN interpreters, the United Nations began recruiting and training potential interpreters who were monolingual from birth but had learned and specialized in languages. This generation of interpreters did not come from privileged groups or complex migratory backgrounds, in contrast with the early beginnings of the profession, there was also a progressive addition of women in the field of conference interpreting. At the League of Nations and during the San Francisco Conference before the founding of the United Nations. The conference interpreters were often exposed to selected or large audiences, gordon-Finlay developed simultaneous interpretation equipment with IBM, and was also used in the post-World War II Nazi war crime trials held in Nuremberg, Germany. United Nations Headquarters, New York City, New York, U. S, chief of Service Administrative Staff Chiefs of Sections Interpreters The UN Interpretation Service is divided into the following sections. Arabic Section Chinese Section English Section French Section Russian Section Spanish Section The speaker talks to a microphone discussion system connected to a central system, the central control system distributes the signal to the audience that do not need interpretation and to the simultaneous interpreter. Audio consoles are placed in the interpretation booths, Interpreters receive the signal, and are still able to capture the environment of the meeting. The interpreter talks to his or her transmitter and the signal back to the central console. ISBN 84-7800-643-5 La interpretación de conferencias, el nacimiento de una profesión, ISBN 84-8444-055-9 From Russian into English, An Introduction to Simultaneous Interpretation by Lynn Visson, UN Interpreter. ISBN 0-87501-095-4 A Brief Guide to From Russian into English, An Introduction to Simultaneous Interpretation by Lynn Visson, ISBN 0-87501-095-4 Interpretation, Techniques and Exercises by James Nolan, UN Interpreter. Endrst, The UN Chronicle, United Nations Publications, Gale Group, date retrieved,28 May 2007
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