restoring law & order and crime prevention - Peace Operations ...

13Assembly and the Security Council and decides on disputes between theMember States referred to it by them voluntarily. The Court also givesadvisory opinion to the General Assembly and the Security Council on thematters referred to it for opinion. 8The Secretariat is the administrative body which runs the United Nations asdirected by the General Assembly, the Security Council and the otherorgans. It is headed by the Secretary-General who is appointed by theGeneral Assembly upon the recommendations of the Security Council andconsists of departments and offices with staff drawn from membercountries.3. The Security Council and the DPKOThe Charter of the United Nations is the fundamental document whichguides all the activities of the United Nations including peacekeeping.Article 1 (1) of the Charter gives the UN the authority as a world body theresponsibility for maintaining peace and security in the world. It proclaimsthat the purpose of the UN is “ to maintain international peace and securityand, to that end, to take effective collective measures for the preventionand removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts ofaggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peacefulmeans, and in conformity with the principles of justice and internationallaw, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations whichmight lead to a breach of the peace”. 9 The UN Security Council has theprimary responsibility for maintenance of international peace and security.The Council discusses the situation constituting a threat to the internationalpeace and then recommends actions for settlement of the dispute such as8At: http://www.icj-cij.org/court/index.php?p1=1 (last visited Feb. 07, 20109Charter of the United Nations. At: http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter1.shtml (lastvisited Dec. 17, 2009)