United Nations

The United Nations (UN) 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 United Nations is in Manhattan, New York City, and experiences extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict.

During the Second World War, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated talks on a successor agency to the League of Nations, and the United Nations Charter was drafted at a conference in April–June 1945; this charter took effect 24 October 1945, and the UN began operation. The UN's 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 major actions in Korea and the Congo, as well as approving the creation of the state of Israel in 1947. The organization's membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization in the 1960s, and by the 1970s its budget for economic and social development programmes far outstripped its spending on peacekeeping. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military and peacekeeping missions across the world with varying degrees of success.

United Nations Mine Action Service

United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) is located in the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. It is responsible for ensuring an effective, proactive and coordinated United Nations response to landmines and explosive remnants of war through collaboration with 13 other UN departments, agencies, funds and programmes. In peacekeeping and emergency settings, UNMAS establishes and manages mine action coordination centres in mine-affected countries, plans and manages operations, mobilizes resources and sets mine-action priorities in the countries and territories it serves. The current Director is Ms. Agnès Marcaillou.

History

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) is a section of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and was formed in October 1997 to serve as the United Nations focal point for mine action and to support the UN vision of a "world free of the threat of landmines and unexploded ordnance".

Five Pillars of Mine Action

Daniel Craig

Daniel Wroughton Craig (born 2 March 1968) is an English actor. Craig trained at the National Youth Theatre and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1991, before beginning his career on stage. His film debut was in the drama The Power of One (1992). Other early appearances were in the Disney family film A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995) and the biographical film Elizabeth (1998), as well as in the historical war drama television series Sharpe's Eagle (1993) and the action-adventure drama series Zorro. Cast as the fictional British secret agent James Bond in October 2005, his first film in the role, Casino Royale, was released internationally in November 2006.

Craig's appearances in the British television film Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), the indie war film The Trench (1999), and the drama Some Voices (2000) attracted the film industry's attention. This led to roles in bigger productions such as the action film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), the crime thriller Road to Perdition (2002), the crime thriller Layer Cake (2004), and the Steven Spielberg historical drama Munich (2005). Craig achieved international fame when chosen as the sixth actor to play the role of Ian Fleming's James Bond in the official film series, taking over from Pierce Brosnan in 2005. Although his casting was initially greeted with scepticism, his debut was highly acclaimed and earned him a BAFTA award nomination, with Casino Royale becoming the highest-grossing in the series at the time. Quantum of Solace followed two years later.

Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Lee Renner (born January 7, 1971) is an American actor and singer. Throughout the 2000s, Renner appeared largely in independent films such as Dahmer (2002) and Neo Ned (2005). He also appeared in supporting roles in bigger films such as S.W.A.T. (2003) and 28 Weeks Later (2007). He then turned in a much-praised performance in The Town (2010), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Renner is best known for his roles in The Hurt Locker (2008) for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and for playing Hawkeye in Thor (2011), Marvel's The Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). He also appeared in commercially successful films such as Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), The Bourne Legacy (2012), Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013), and American Hustle (2013), and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015). He will reprise his role as Clint Barton / Hawkeye in Captain America: Civil War (2016).

Western Sahara

Coordinates: 25°N 13°W / 25°N 13°W / 25; -13

Western Sahara (ⁱ/ˌwɛstərn səˈhɑːrə, -ˈhɛərə, -ˈhærə/;Arabic: الصحراء الغربية‎ aṣ-Ṣaḥrā’ al-Gharbīyah; Spanish: Sahara Occidental; Berber: Taneẓroft Tutrimt) is a disputed territory in the Maghreb region of North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to 266,000 square kilometres (103,000 sq mi). It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at just over 500,000, of which nearly 40% live in El Aaiún (also spelled Laâyoune), the largest city in Western Sahara.

Occupied by Spain in the late 19th century, the Western Sahara has been on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories since 1963 after a Moroccan demand. It is the most populous territory on that list, and by far the largest in area. In 1965, the UN General Assembly adopted its first resolution on Western Sahara, asking Spain to decolonise the territory. One year later, a new resolution was passed by the General Assembly requesting that a referendum be held by Spain on self-determination.