Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation and recovery. Programs of this sort were initially discussed at least as early as the 1920s and were implemented in some countries during the 1930s as the threat of war and aerial bombardment grew. It became widespread after the threat of nuclear weapons was realized.
The Sabra and Shatila massacre was the killing of between 460 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, by the militia of the Lebanese Forces, a Maronite Christian Lebanese right-wing party, in the Sabra neighborhood and the adjacent Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. President Bachir Gemayel had been assassinated two days earlier and the Phalangists sought revenge. From approximately 18:00 on 16 September to 08:00 on 18 September 1982, a widespread massacre was carried out by the militia, while the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had the camp surrounded. The militia had been ordered by the IDF to clear Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters out of Sabra and Shatila, as part of the IDF's maneuvering into West Beirut. As the massacre unfolded, the IDF received reports of atrocities but did not take any action to prevent or stop the massacre.
Elie Hobeika was a commander in the Lebanese Forces militia during the Lebanese Civil War and one of Bashir Gemayel's close confidents. After the murder of Gemayel, he gained notoriety for his involvement in the Sabra and Shatila massacre. He became president of the Lebanese Forces political party until he was ousted in 1986. He then founded the Promise Party and was elected to serve two terms in the Parliament of Lebanon. In January 2002, he was assassinated by a car bomb at his house in Beirut.
A gendarmerie is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term gendarme is derived from the medieval French expression gens d'armes, which translates to "men-at-arms". In France and some Francophone nations, the gendarmerie is a branch of the armed forces responsible for internal security in parts of the territory with additional duties as military police for the armed forces. It was introduced to several other Western European countries during the Napoleonic conquests. In the mid-twentieth century, a number of former French mandates or colonial possessions such as Lebanon, Syria, the Ivory Coast, and the Republic of the Congo adopted a gendarmerie after independence. A similar concept was introduced in Eastern Europe by establishing Internal Troops, that exist in many countries of the former Soviet Union and their former allied countries.
Continuity of government (COG) is the principle of establishing defined procedures that allow a government to continue its essential operations in case of a catastrophic event such as nuclear war.
Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence are protective measures taken in situations in which chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear warfare hazards may be present. CBRN defence consists of CBRN passive protection, contamination avoidance and CBRN mitigation.
Samir Farid Geagea is a Lebanese politician and militia commander who has served as the executive chairman of the Lebanese Forces since 1986.
A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine, but it is inherited to be used in disasters and other emergency situations.
The Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergency Situations and Liquidation of Consequences of Natural Disasters, also known as the Ministry of Emergency Situations, or internationally as EMERCOM, is a Russian government agency overseeing the civil emergency services in Russia.
The Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) is a Danish governmental agency under the Ministry of Defence. Its principal task is to manage an operational part who work out of six Emergency Management Centres, and administrative and legalizing part, who supervises the national and municipal rescue preparedness and advises the authorities on matters of preparedness. DEMA works in closely structured co-operation with the EU, UN and several neighbouring countries.
The 2006 Qana airstrike was an air strike carried out by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) on a three-story building in the small community of al-Khuraybah near the South Lebanese village of Qana on July 30, 2006, during the 2006 Lebanon War. 28 civilians were killed, of which 16 were children. Israel halted air strikes for 48 hours following the attack, amid increasing calls for a cease-fire in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas.
Law enforcement in the Russian Federation is the responsibility of a variety of different agencies. The Russian police are the primary law enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee of Russia is the main investigative agency, and the Federal Security Service is the main domestic security agency.
There are a handful of law enforcement establishments in the Maldives.
Civil defence in Finland is the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior under the Civil Defence Act of 1958. It is directed to provide civil defence to protect persons and property in wartime as well as in peacetime. The act stipulates that the ministry is responsible for providing shelters in high-risk areas, for evacuating civilian population from threatened areas, and for limiting damage from natural disasters. In emergency situations, firefighting, rescue, ambulance, and first-aid services are coordinated with the civil defence effort. Civil defence operations are entirely a civilian responsibility.
The State Emergency Service, until December 24, 2012 the Ministry of Emergencies of Ukraine, is the main executive body tasked with carrying out state policy in the sphere of a civil defence, rescue, creating and managing the system of insurance fund documentation, utilization of radioactive wastes, protection of population and territory in emergency situations, emergency prevention and response, liquidation in the aftermath, and the Chernobyl catastrophe. It is abbreviated as ДСНС [України]. The ministry manages its sphere of operations and is fully responsible for their development. It also directly administers the zone of alienation located just north of Kyiv.
The Military Police of Russia is the uniformed law enforcement branch of the Russian Armed Forces, which is known by the official name of Main Directorate of the Military Police, and it is operated by the Russian Ministry of Defence.
The Young Men or Les Jeunes in French, were a small Lebanese Christian militia linked to the Lebanese Forces (LF), which fought in the Lebanese Civil War between 1978 and 1986.
The main mission of the Cyprus Civil Defence Force is carrying out various humanitarian projects intended to protect the civilian population and to help it recover from the immediate effects of hostilities or disasters, as well as to provide the conditions necessary for its survival.
Many countries around the world have civil defense organizations dedicated to protecting civilians from military attacks and providing rescue services after widespread disasters. In most countries, civil defense is a government-managed and often volunteer-staffed organization.
The Ministry of Defense of Turkmenistan is a government agency under the Armed Forces of Turkmenistan which is the executive body in implementing defense policies in Turkmenistan. The current Minister of Defense is Major General Begench Gundogdyev. It was founded in January 1992 with the assistance of the Russian Armed Forces.
