International Specialised agencies Protection Agencies and NGOs

You get a polio drop at a health camp, a seafarer's certificate is checked against an international standard, and a refugee family gets a tent from a blue-flagged agency. None of these is done by the UN General Assembly or the Security Council. They are done by specialised agencies, protection agencies and civil-society organisations, and each has a different legal footing. This topic is about telling them apart.

In two minutes

Specialised agencies are separate intergovernmental organisations with wide international responsibility in a field, brought into relationship with the UN under Articles 57 and 63 of the Charter; protection agencies defend particular groups such as refugees or victims of war; and NGOs are private bodies that have a participatory, not a law-making, role.

The rest of this chapter

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