HC 516 - Support for British Nationals Abroad: The Consular Service

HC 516 - Support for British Nationals Abroad: The Consular Service PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215078829
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description
The Consular Service of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office provides vital support to British nationals overseas. It offers a wide range of services, handling anything from lost passports to kidnap, a major crisis evacuation or verification of a document. It is the FCO's public face, and it is central to its reputation at home. Britons undertaking more adventurous travel, large expatriate populations and a series of major overseas crises have tested the Consular Service in recent years. In 2013, the FCO dealt with over 450,000 consular customers, over 17,000 of whom received personal assistance. The Consular Service has responded with a "strategic shift" to provide a more standardised and professional service. However, the strategic shift to a "smaller and better" consular service has also meant that some services have been limited or withdrawn, and standardisation has meant the end of so-called "over-service" as well as under-service. The FCO has consequently put great emphasis on encouraging self-help, managing expectations and explaining the limits of its assistance to British nationals. Despite these efforts to explain to the public what the FCO can and cannot do, there was still a significant gap between the high expectations of the public and the reality of what the FCO could provide.

HC 516 - Support for British Nationals Abroad: The Consular Service

HC 516 - Support for British Nationals Abroad: The Consular Service PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215078829
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description
The Consular Service of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office provides vital support to British nationals overseas. It offers a wide range of services, handling anything from lost passports to kidnap, a major crisis evacuation or verification of a document. It is the FCO's public face, and it is central to its reputation at home. Britons undertaking more adventurous travel, large expatriate populations and a series of major overseas crises have tested the Consular Service in recent years. In 2013, the FCO dealt with over 450,000 consular customers, over 17,000 of whom received personal assistance. The Consular Service has responded with a "strategic shift" to provide a more standardised and professional service. However, the strategic shift to a "smaller and better" consular service has also meant that some services have been limited or withdrawn, and standardisation has meant the end of so-called "over-service" as well as under-service. The FCO has consequently put great emphasis on encouraging self-help, managing expectations and explaining the limits of its assistance to British nationals. Despite these efforts to explain to the public what the FCO can and cannot do, there was still a significant gap between the high expectations of the public and the reality of what the FCO could provide.

HC 564 - UK Government Policy on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

HC 564 - UK Government Policy on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215081102
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description
The Kurdistan Region of Iraq is a genuine, if developing, democracy. It is also a haven of tolerance and stability in a critically unstable region where those values are needed more than ever. It has huge strategic value to the UK as a bridge to other regional powers, is a key bulwark against ISIL, and has significant oil and gas potential. But it is also vulnerable and needs the support of its friends. It should respond positively to the invitation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to be its "partner of choice" on trade, education and cultural exchange as well as on defence and intelligence matters. The Kurdistan Region has work to do on developing its democratic culture and its respect for human rights, and UK support should go hand in hand with proof of progress in these areas. The Committee commends the Region's defence force, the Peshmerga, for its defence of Kurdish territory against ISIL and its protection of vulnerable minorities. It supports the UK Government's decision to offer the Peshmerga equipment and training. Advice is also needed from the Kurdistan Region's experts on issues like counter-terrorism and on the situation on the ground in Iraq and Syria. More diplomats need to be working out of a proper office in Erbil instead of hotel rooms. And this is not easily achieved as the FCO has suffered from cuts to its meagre budget at a time when more expertise and high-level co-operation is desperately needed.

HC 842 - Hong Kong: China's Ban On The Committee's Visit

HC 842 - Hong Kong: China's Ban On The Committee's Visit PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215080742
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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Book Description
In July 2014, the Committee launched an inquiry into the UK's relations with Hong Kong, 30 years after the signing of the Joint Declaration. As part of this inquiry, they planned to visit Hong Kong to speak to a wide range of interlocutors about the UK-Hong Kong relationship. The Chinese and Hong Kong authorities informed the Committee that they considered this to be interference in China's internal affairs and they urged a halt to the inquiry. On 28 November, the Chinese Deputy Ambassador informed the Committee that the Chinese government would take any necessary measures to prevent the Committee from visiting Hong Kong, forcing the postponement of the visit. It was made clear that the Committee would be prevented from entering Hong Kong, despite the fact that, as UK nationals, no visa for entry was required. The Committee considers the ban by China to be unprecedented, and sees it as an obstruction to the conduct of the Committee's parliamentary duties.

HC 551 - The FCO's Human Rights Work in 2013

HC 551 - The FCO's Human Rights Work in 2013 PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215078861
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
The FCO designated 28 countries of concern in its 2013 report, where it judged the gravity of the human rights abuses to be so severe that a particular focus should be applied. The Committee concentrated attention on three of these countries: Sri Lanka, Burma, and Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Favourable trade concessions to the EU market should be removed from Sri Lanka if the Government of Sri Lanka continues to deny the OHCHR investigation team access into the country. The Government should advocate re-imposition of sanctions by the EU if there is no improvement in the human rights situation in Burma. The human rights of Israeli, Palestinian and Bedouin citizens living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories continue to be of serious concern to the UK.

HC 605 - The FCO's Performance and Finances in 2013-14

HC 605 - The FCO's Performance and Finances in 2013-14 PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215081722
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
The cuts imposed on the FCO since 2010 have been severe and have gone beyond just trimming fat: capacity now appears to be being damaged. If further cuts are imposed, the UK's diplomatic imprint and influence would probably reduce, and the Government would need to roll back some of its foreign policy objectives. The FCO's budget is a tiny element of Government expenditure, but the FCO makes disproportionate contribution to policy making at the highest level, including decisions on whether to commit to military action. The next Government needs to protect future FCO budgets under the next Spending Review.

Citizenship Law in Africa

Citizenship Law in Africa PDF Author: Bronwen Manby
Publisher: African Minds
ISBN: 1936133296
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
Few African countries provide for an explicit right to a nationality. Laws and practices governing citizenship leave hundreds of thousands of people in Africa without a country to which they belong. Statelessness and discriminatory citizenship practices underlie and exacerbate tensions in many regions of the continent, according to this report by the Open Society Institute. Citizenship Law in Africa is a comparative study by the Open Society Justice Initiative and Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project. It describes the often arbitrary, discriminatory, and contradictory citizenship laws that exist from state to state, and recommends ways that African countries can bring their citizenship laws in line with international legal norms. The report covers topics such as citizenship by descent, citizenship by naturalization, gender discrimination in citizenship law, dual citizenship, and the right to identity documents and passports. It describes how stateless Africans are systematically exposed to human rights abuses: they can neither vote nor stand for public office; they cannot enroll their children in school, travel freely, or own property; they cannot work for the government.--Publisher description.

The Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture (Academic Edition)

The Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture (Academic Edition) PDF Author: Senate Select Committee On Intelligence
Publisher: Melville House
ISBN: 1612198473
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 672

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Book Description
The study edition of book the Los Angeles Times called, "The most extensive review of U.S. intelligence-gathering tactics in generations." This is the complete Executive Summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation into the CIA's interrogation and detention programs -- a.k.a., The Torture Report. Based on over six million pages of secret CIA documents, the report details a covert program of secret prisons, prisoner deaths, interrogation practices, and cooperation with other foreign and domestic agencies, as well as the CIA's efforts to hide the details of the program from the White House, the Department of Justice, the Congress, and the American people. Over five years in the making, it is presented here exactly as redacted and released by the United States government on December 9, 2014, with an introduction by Daniel J. Jones, who led the Senate investigation. This special edition includes: • Large, easy-to-read format. • Almost 3,000 notes formatted as footnotes, exactly as they appeared in the original report. This allows readers to see obscured or clarifying details as they read the main text. • An introduction by Senate staffer Daniel J. Jones who led the investigation and wrote the report for the Senate Intelligence Committee, and a forward by the head of that committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein.

The High Commissioners

The High Commissioners PDF Author: Carl Bridge
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781921612107
Category : Australia
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Marks the centenary of the posting of the first Australian High Commissioner in London, so beginning what is today Australia's oldest diplomatic mission. In 1910, when Sir George Reid was appointed its first High Commissioner in London, Australia was a self-governing but not yet sovereign state and the Australian Governor-General remained the most important channel of communication between the Australian and United Kingdom governments until the late 1920s. The book traces the history of the office and in doing so illuminates the larger story of Australian-United Kingdom relations in the twentieth century, the evolution of Australia from British colony to sovereign state and the gradual transition of the United Kingdom from head of an empire to member of the European Union.

The Fall of the Philippines

The Fall of the Philippines PDF Author: Louis Morton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 664

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Book Description


Fourth Arm of Defense

Fourth Arm of Defense PDF Author: Salvatore R. Mercogliano
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780945274964
Category : Merchant marine
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
This publication is the eighth in the series The U.S. Navy and the Vietnam War. The publication focuses on the sealift and logistic operations during the war and includes a number of photographs as well as sidebars detailing specific people and ships involved in the logistic operations. This historical pictorial reference would be of interest to students, historians, members of the military, specifically the Navy, and military leaders, veterans, Vietnam War veterans, and the U.S. merchant marines.