Citizenship Assignment | Rhys Goodbourn | Group B
This will define what citizenship is, explain how to become a UK citizen, define multiculturism and define an active and
passive citizen.
What is Citizenship?
Citizenship is a status of belonging to a particular country or belonging to a state or nation and being accustomed to
their laws.
How to become a UK citizen?
To become a citizen of the UK you have three ways of doing so, Birth right is one of them and it is where you are born in
the UK and you are automatically become a British citizen, if one of your parents is a British national or considered to be
“settled” in the UK, such as having a permanent residency. Another one is Naturalization, this is where you are born in
another country and want to become a part of a different country that you have no connection to, this applies to
becoming a UK citizen as many people from other countries have fled to our country and have taken this way of getting
a British citizenship. Finally, registration this is where you want to become a UK citizen and already have some
connections within the UK, but it comes with some requirements to do this:
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18 years of age or older,
Of good character ( No criminal records ),
Have sufficient knowledge of a UK language ( These can be Welsh, Gaelic or English ),
Intend to have your main home in the UK,
Resident in the UK for at least 5 years.
To be a good character you will need some common values such as: Obeying the law, protecting the environment,
prioritizing the needs of society, like reporting a crime, community involvement and or volunteering.
What is multiculturism?
Multiculturism is the presence and acceptance of all different ethnic or religious cultures in society that are treated
equally.
What is an active citizen?
Being an active citizen or a good character is to do activities for the local area, such as: litter picking, reporting criminal
activity, developing life skills ( First Aid ), community evolvement like volunteering.
Advantages and disadvantages
The advantage of having good citizenship is important, because it helps the protective services do their job, as they can
get reports as fast as possible and can trust most of the sources from the local area, it also reduces crime rate as
criminals are aware the area is watched by neighborhood watch or locals.
The disadvantage of good citizenship is that it can be false, people could lie about certain things or just brushes of a
crime that happened nearby, cause they know the person or they don’t like the person in that crime.
What is an passive citizen?
A passive citizen is someone who doesn’t report crimes, volunteer in community events and overall isn’t helpful in their
community and environment. There can be many reasons why they are passive but they will probably do small things
and nothing major like just sorting their rubbish in the bins into the correct ones or saving electric but only stuff that is
self-beneficial.
European Union
The EU is a union of the commonwealth, and they help their countries around them with goods, people, services and
capitals, this benefits the EU citizens as it is easier to travel around the EU and your rights are protected while you travel.
It is also easier to trade with other countries as it gives businesses a fair chance. Also, it protects minorities and
vulnerable groups so equal treatment for all and stands up for the oppressed.
United Nations
The United nations is to prevent war in the future and countries try to agree on which laws should be applied in the
world, they heavily discuss subjects like Peace & security, Human Rights and Sustainable developments, this benefits UN
citizens as they have no poverty and no hunger, quality education, gender equality, tackle climate change and decent
work and economic growth.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NATO is similar to the UN as they try to prevent wars and peace and security but they are a military alliance, their
citizens benefits from NATO by avoid and minimize conflict, secure peace and protection of civilians. But a war on one
NATO country is a war on all of NATO.
Amnesty International
The amnesty international investigate and expose human rights that are abused and benefits citizens as it makes the
world more safe and more equal society.
Citizens Advice
They give advice to citizens on issues such as housing, debt, family, immigration and benefits. This can sometimes be
incorrect information but is a helpline for citizens.
The protective services are also closely watched for how well they can do their services for all and maintain an equality.
Legislation is a major part of maintaining equality and rights, like:
The Equality Act 2010
This act is here to prevent discrimination in the following: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil
partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or beliefs, sex, sexual orientation. These are protected
characteristics, there are many case studies of one or two of these characteristic where they have been discriminated
either by the public or the services, like:
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Eileen Jolly
Fiona Pilkington
HMP Belmarsh Clare Derbyshire
Stephen Lawrence
The Human Rights Act 1998
This is an act to protect rights that you have got within your country or others, like the right to live.
Some examples of human rights are:
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The right to live
The Right to a fair trail
The right to privacy
The right to vote
The freedom of expression
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The freedom of religion or conscience
The freedom of assembly
The freedom from torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and slavery.
There are different types of rights: Limited, qualified, absolute.
The Investigatory Powers Act
This act brings all together all powers already available and use them to law enforcement and the security and
intelligence agencies to obtain information data about communications.
It can be used to find information about corrupt people or companies. Also removes people’s rights to privacy to protect
everyone’s right to security.
Right to access services
It is self-explanatory, it is the right to be able to call any services at any time, no matter what race, religion and ethnicity.
Data Protection Act
This act is about protecting everyone’s data and if any data is breached it can cause many problems, anyone who has
someone else's data without permission can get into a lot of trouble.