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An interior ministry (sometimes ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government ministry typically responsible for policing, emergency management, national security, registration, supervision of local governments, conduct of elections, public administration and immigration matters. The ministry is often headed by a minister of the interior, minister of internal affairs or a minister of home affairs. In some countries, matters relating to the maintenance of law and order and the administration of justice are the responsibility of a separate justice ministry.
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state to enforce the law, to protect the lives, liberty and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their powers include the power of arrest and the legitimized use of force. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usually public sector services, funded through taxes.
Emergency management is the organization and management of the resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies. The aim is to reduce the harmful effects of all hazards, including disasters.
National security refers to the security of a nation state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, and is regarded as a duty of government.
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In some countries, policing and national security belong to a separate ministry (often titled "ministry of public order", "ministry of security" etc.), with the interior ministry being limited to control over local governments, public administration, elections etc. Notable examples include Greece (ministry of citizen protection) and Israel (ministry of public security).
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, self-identified and historically known as Hellas, is a country located in Southern and Southeast Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2016. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki.
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in Western Asia, located on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. It has land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively, and Egypt to the southwest. The country contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel's economic and technological center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, although the state's sovereignty over Jerusalem has only partial recognition.
The Ministry of Public Security, also Ministry of Internal Security, is a government agency of Israel. It is the statewide law enforcement agency and oversees the Israel Police, the Israel Prison Service and the Israel National Fire and Rescue Services. The current Minister of Public Security is Gilad Erdan.
In countries with a federal constitution, an interior minister will often be found at both the federal and sub-national levels. Similarly, autonomous entities and dependent territories may also have interior ministers.
A federation is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body. Alternatively, federation is a form of government in which sovereign power is formally divided between a central authority and a number of constituent regions so that each region retains some degree of control over its internal affairs. It is often argued that federal states where the central government has the constitutional authority to suspend a constituent state's government by invoking gross mismanagement or civil unrest, or to adopt national legislation that overrides or infringe on the constituent states' powers by invoking the central government's constitutional authority to ensure "peace and good government" or to implement obligations contracted under an international treaty, are not truly federal states.
A dependent territory, dependent area or dependency is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state yet remains politically outside the controlling state's integral area.
In certain jurisdictions, similarly named government departments may have other responsibilities. In the United States, the Department of the Interior has radically different functions—primarily the management and conservation of natural resources, and programs and policies dealing with indigenous peoples of the U.S. The functions that fall under what most other countries call an "interior ministry" are under other government departments—mostly the Department of Homeland Security (with functions such as public safety and disaster relief), with some others falling under the Department of Justice (with functions such as handling the national police and the management of prisons).
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, territorial affairs, and insular areas of the United States. About 75% of federal public land is managed by the department, with most of the remainder managed by the United States Department of Agriculture's United States Forest Service.
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a cabinet department of the U.S. federal government with responsibilities in public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terrorism, border security, immigration and customs, cyber security, and disaster prevention and management. It was created in response to the September 11 attacks and is the youngest U.S. cabinet department.
In Canada the Interior Minister's post existed from 1873 to 1936, replacing previous role of the Secretary of State for the Provinces. The current position is held by the newer Minister of Public Safety since 2003.
The Minister of the Interior was the member of the Canadian Cabinet responsible for federal land management, immigration, Indian affairs and natural resources extraction. The position was created in 1873 to replace the Secretary of State for the Provinces and was superseded by the following ministries in 1936:
Secretary of State for the Provinces was an office in the Cabinet of Canada, active from 1867 to 1873. The office was superseded by the Minister of the Interior on May 3, 1873.
In Hong Kong, the Secretary for Home Affairs is responsible for matters relating to communities, culture, sports and local governance. Policing and related matters are the responsibilities of the Secretary for Security.
Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and commonly abbreviated as HK, is a special administrative region on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary in southern China. With over 7.4 million people of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is the world's fourth most densely populated region.
The Secretary for Home Affairs is the head of the Home Affairs Bureau of the Government of Hong Kong, which is responsible for local issues, and the provision of community, leisure, and cultural services.
The Secretary for Security is the member of the Hong Kong Government in charge of the Security Bureau, which is responsible for public safety, security, and immigration matters.
In India, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is responsible for internal security, demographics, promotes the official language. [1] It tasks specialized functions by virtue of its departments, namely Department of Border Management, Department of Internal Security, Department of Jammu & Kashmir Affairs, Department of Home, Department of Official Language and Department of States. As such it heads such functions as the internal intelligence, and police and Civil Services of India as also protocol, freedom fighter pensions and manning of the courts. [2]
In Japan, law enforcement is decentralised with the National Public Safety Commission coordinating between the National Police Agency and the government through its chairman, who is a cabinet member. National security and immigration matters fall under the Ministry of Justice, whilst the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications handles the administrative system, local government, elections, telecommunication and post matters.
In Vietnam, The Ministry of Public Security is responsible for policing, national security, and immigration matters.
