1.
Albania
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Albania, officially the Republic of Albania, is a country in Southeastern Europe. It has a population of 3.03 million as of 2016, Tirana is the nations capital and largest city, followed by Durrës and Vlorë. The country has a coastline on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea to the west. Albania is less than 72 km from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which connects the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea. In antiquity, the area of Albania was home to several Illyrian, Thracian. After the Illyrian Wars, it part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Macedonia and Moesia Superior. In 1190, the first Albanian state, the Principality of Arbanon was established by archon Progon in the region of Krujë, the territory of Albania was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, of which it remained part of for the next five centuries. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, following the Balkan Wars, the Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy in 1939, which formed Greater Albania, before becoming a Nazi German protectorate in 1943. The following year, a socialist Peoples Republic was established under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, Albania experienced widespread social and political transformations in the communist era, as well as isolation from much of the international community. In 1991, the Socialist Republic was dissolved and the Republic of Albania was established, Albania is a democratic and developing country with an upper-middle income economy. The service sector dominates the economy, followed by the industrial. After the fall of communism in Albania, Free-market reforms have opened the country to foreign investment, especially in the development of energy, Albania has a high HDI and provides universal health care system and free primary and secondary education to its citizens. Albania is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and it is also an official candidate for membership in the European Union. Albania is one of the members of the Energy Community, Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. It is home to the largest lake in Southern Europe and one of the oldest lakes in Europe, Albania is the Medieval Latin name of the country. The name may have a continuation in the name of a settlement called Albanon and Arbanon. During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbëri or Arbëni, Albanians today call their country Shqipëri. As early as the 17th century the placename Shqipëria and the ethnic demonym Shqiptarë gradually replaced Arbëria, the two terms are popularly interpreted as Land of the Eagles and Children of the Eagles
2.
People's Socialist Republic of Albania
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Albania, officially the Peoples Socialist Republic of Albania, was a socialist state that ruled Albania from 1946 to its fall in 1992. From 1946 to 1976 it was known as the Peoples Republic of Albania, travel and visa restrictions made Albania one of the most difficult countries to visit or to travel from. In 1967, it declared itself the worlds first atheist state and it was the only Warsaw Pact member to formally withdraw from the alliance before 1990, an action occasioned by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The Peoples Socialist Republic was officially dissolved on 28 November 1998 upon the adoption of the new Constitution of Albania, on 29 November 1944, Albania was liberated by the National Liberation Movement. The Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council, formed in May, became the provisional government. The government, like the LNC, was dominated by the two-year-old Communist Party of Albania, King Zog I was barred from ever returning to Albania, though the country nominally remained a monarchy. From the start, the LNC government was an undisguised Communist regime, in the other countries in what became the Soviet bloc, the Communists were at least nominally part of coalition governments for a few years before taking complete control. The internal affairs minister, Koçi Xoxe, an erstwhile pro-Yugoslavia tinsmith, presided over the trial of many non-communist politicians condemned as enemies of the people and those spared were imprisoned for years in work camps and jails and later settled on state farms built on reclaimed marshlands. In December 1945, Albanians elected a new Peoples Assembly, official ballot tallies showed that 92% of the electorate voted and that 93% of the voters chose the Democratic Front ticket. The assembly convened in January 1946 and its first act was to formally abolish the monarchy and to declare Albania a peoples republic. However, as mentioned above, the country had been a Communist state for just over two years, after months of angry debate, the assembly adopted a constitution that mirrored the Yugoslav and Soviet constitutions. Then in the spring, the members chose a new government. Hoxha became prime minister, foreign minister, defense minister, Xoxe remained both internal affairs minister and the partys organizational secretary. Hoxha remained in control despite the fact that he had once advocated restoring relations with Italy, the communists also undertook economic measures to expand their power. In December 1944, the government adopted laws allowing the state to regulate foreign and domestic trade, commercial enterprises. The laws sanctioned confiscation of property belonging to political exiles and enemies of the people, in August 1945, the provisional government adopted the first sweeping agricultural reforms in Albanias history. The countrys 100 largest landowners, who controlled close to a third of Albanias arable land, had frustrated all agricultural reform proposals before the war, the communists reforms were aimed at squeezing large landowners out of business, winning peasant support, and increasing farm output to avert famine. The government annulled outstanding agricultural debts, granted peasants access to water for irrigation
3.
Tachograph
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A tachograph is a device fitted to a vehicle that automatically records its speed and distance, together with the drivers activity selected from a choice of modes. The drive mode is activated automatically when the vehicle is in motion, the rest and availability modes can be manually selected by the driver whilst stationary. A tachograph system comprises a sender unit mounted to the gearbox, the tachograph head. Tachograph heads are of either analogue or digital types, all relevant vehicles manufactured in the EU since 1 May 2006 must be fitted with digital tachograph heads. Digital driver cards store data in a format that can also be read out as a. ddd file. These files - both those read from memory with a download device, and those read from the driver cards - can be imported into tachograph analysis/archival software. They are also used in the world, for example through the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine. The tachograph was originally introduced for the railroads so that companies could better document irregularities, the inventor was Max Maria von Weber, a civil servant, engineer and author. The Daniel Tachometer is known in railways since 1844, the Hasler Event recorder was introduced in the 1920s. For reasons of safety, many jurisdictions have limits on the working hours of drivers of certain vehicles, such as buses. A tachograph can be used to monitor this and ensure that appropriate breaks are taken, the Verkehrs-Sicherungs-Gesetz of 19 December 1952, made tachographs mandatory in Germany for all commercial vehicles weighing over 7.5 tonnes. Since 23 March and 23 December 1953, all new vehicles and buses must be equipped with the device per law Straßenverkehrs-Zulassungs-Ordnung § 57a. Tachographs are mandatory for vehicles allowed to carry a weight of over 3.5 tonnes and vehicles built to carry at least 9 passengers. They are used to review the driving and rest time of drivers during reviews by traffic standards organizations or accident investigation, a driver must carry the tachograph records with him for all days of the current week and the last day of the previous week that he drove. Companies must keep the records for 1 year, in Germany, §16 of the work time regulations lengthens this time to 2 years if the records will be used as proof of work time. EEC regulation 3821/85 from 20 December 1985 made tachographs mandatory throughout the EEC as of 29 September 1986, a European arrangement in regard to the work of driving personnel engaged in international traffic became effective on 31 July 1985. Regulation 561/2006/EC of the European Union adopted on 11 April 2007 specified the driving and these time periods can be checked by the employers, police and other authorities with the help of the tachograph. Most tachographs produced prior to 1 May 2006 were of the analogue type, later analogue tachograph head models are of a modular design, enabling the head to fit into a standard DIN slot in the vehicle dashboard
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Apostille Convention
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It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. Such a certification is called an apostille and it is an international certification comparable to a notarisation in domestic law, and normally supplements a local notarisation of the document. Apostilles are affixed by Competent Authorities designated by the government of a state which is party to the convention, a list of these authorities is maintained by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Examples of designated authorities are embassies, ministries, courts or governments, for example, in the United States, the Secretary of State of each state and his or her deputies are usually competent authorities. In the United Kingdom, all apostilles are issued by the Foreign, to be eligible for an apostille, a document must first be issued or certified by an officer recognised by the authority that will issue the apostille. For example, in the US state of Vermont, the Secretary of State maintains specimen signatures of all notaries public, likewise, courts in the Netherlands are eligible of placing an apostille on all municipal civil status documents directly. In some cases, intermediate certifications may be required in the country in which the document originates before it will be eligible for an apostille, for example, in New York City, the Office of Vital Records is not directly recognised by the New York Secretary of State. As a consequence, the signature of the City Clerk must be certified by the County Clerk of New York County to make the birth certificate eligible for an apostille. In Japan all the documents are issued in Japanese language. In India the apostille certification can be obtained from the Ministry of External Affairs The apostille itself is a stamp or printed form consisting of 10 numbered standard fields. On the top is the text APOSTILLE, under which the text Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961 is placed and this title must be written in French for the Apostille to be valid. In the numbered fields the following information is added, Country and this public document has been signed by acting in the capacity of bears the seal/stamp of Certified at the. Signature The information can be placed on the document itself, or attached to the document as an allonge, a State that has not signed the Convention must specify how foreign legal documents can be certified for its use. Two countries may have a convention on the recognition of each others public documents. In practice this means the document must be certified twice before it can have effect in the receiving country. The convention has 112 parties and is in force for all members of the European Union, the most recent state to accede to the convention is Chile. In 2005 The Hague Conference surveyed its members and produced a report in December 2008 which expressed concerns about Diplomas. The possible abuse of the system was highlighted Particularly troubling is the use of diploma mill qualifications to circumvent migration controls
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Arms Trade Treaty
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The Arms Trade Treaty is a multilateral treaty that regulates the international trade in conventional weapons. It entered into force on 24 December 2014, ninety-one states have ratified the treaty, and a further 42 states have signed but not ratified it. The treaty was negotiated in New York City at a conference under the auspices of the United Nations from 2–27 July 2012. As it was not possible to reach an agreement on a text at that time. On 2 April 2013, the UN General Assembly adopted the ATT, international weapons commerce has been estimated to reach US$70 billion a year. The ATT is part of a global effort begun in 1997 by Costa Rican President and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Óscar Arias. In that year, Arias led a group of Nobel Peace Prize laureates in a meeting in New York to offer the world a code of conduct for the trade in arms. The original idea was to establish standards for the arms trade that would eventually be adopted by the international community. Over the following 16 years, the Arias Foundation for Peace & Human Progress has played a role in achieving approval of the treaty. In 2001, the process continued with the adoption of a non-legally binding program of action at the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms. This program was called the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms. The ATT, like the PoA, is predicated upon a hypothesis that the trade in small arms is a large. 94 states submitted their views, which are contained in the 2007 report A/62/278, duncan was speaking on behalf of the co-authors. On behalf of the European Union, Finland highlighted the support for the effort, saying, everyday, everywhere,94 States submitted their views, which are contained in the 2007 report A/62/278. In December 2006,153 member states voted in favour of the resolution, the United States voted against the resolution. After the vote, Algeria indicated that the effort must receive broad-based support from states, the group met three times in 2008, and published a final report on the issue. Peace continues to be a step further away, nuclear and conventional weapons still exist despite the promises. It is up to us to ensure that in twenty years we do not awaken to the same terrors we suffer today, I am not ignorant of the fact that the biggest arms dealers in the world are represented here
6.
Berne Convention
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The Berne Convention formally mandated several aspects of modern copyright law, it introduced the concept that a copyright exists the moment a work is fixed, rather than requiring registration. It also enforces a requirement that countries recognize copyrights held by the citizens of all parties to the convention. The Berne Convention requires its parties to treat the copyright of works of authors from other parties to the convention at least as well as those of its own nationals. For example, French copyright law applies to anything published or performed in France, Copyright under the Berne Convention must be automatic, it is prohibited to require formal registration. However, when the United States joined the Convention 1 March 1989, it continued to make statutory damages and attorneys fees only available for registered works. Under Article 4, it applies to cinematic works by persons who have their headquarters or habitual residence in a party country. The Convention relies on the concept of country of origin, often determining the country of origin is straightforward, when a work is published in a party country and nowhere else, this is the country of origin. However, under Article 5, when a work is published simultaneously in several party countries, for works simultaneously published in a party country and one or more non-parties, the party country is the country of origin. For unpublished works or works first published in a non-party country, in the Internet age, unrestricted publication online may be considered publication in every sufficiently internet-connected jurisdiction in the world. It is not clear what this may mean for determining country of origin, however other U. S. courts in similar situations have reached different conclusions, e. g. Håkan Moberg v. 33T LLC. The matter of determining the country of origin for digital publication remains a topic of controversy among law academics as well, countries under the older revisions of the treaty may choose to provide their own protection terms, and certain types of works may be provided shorter terms. If the author is unknown, because for example the author was deliberately anonymous or worked under a pseudonym, however, if the identity of the author becomes known, the copyright term for known authors applies. e. An author is not entitled a longer copyright abroad than at home. This is commonly known as the rule of the shorter term, not all countries have accepted this rule. As to works, protection must include every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, the Berne Convention authorizes countries to allow fair uses of copyrighted works in other publications or broadcasts. Implementations of this part of the treaty fall into the categories of fair use. This language may mean that Internet service providers are not liable for the communications of their users. Critics claim that the convention does not mention any other rights of consumers of works except for fair use, there is a legal debate about whether the U. S
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Convention on Biological Diversity
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The Convention on Biological Diversity, known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. In other words, its objective is to develop strategies for the conservation. It is often seen as the key document regarding sustainable development, the Convention was opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992 and entered into force on 29 December 1993. At the 2010 10th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October in Nagoya, Japan, the notion of an international convention on biological diversity was conceived at a United Nations Environment Programme Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts on Biological Diversity in November 1988. In 1991, a negotiating committee was established, tasked with finalizing the conventions text. A Conference for the Adoption of the Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity was held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1992, the Conventions text was opened for signature on 5 June 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. By its closing date,4 June 1993, the convention had received 168 signatures and it entered into force on 29 December 1993. The agreement covers all ecosystems, species, and genetic resources and it links traditional conservation efforts to the economic goal of using biological resources sustainably. It sets principles for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources and it also covers the rapidly expanding field of biotechnology through its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, addressing technology development and transfer, benefit-sharing and biosafety issues. Importantly, the Convention is legally binding, countries that join it are obliged to implement its provisions, the convention reminds decision-makers that natural resources are not infinite and sets out a philosophy of sustainable use. While past conservation efforts were aimed at protecting particular species and habitats, however, this should be done in a way and at a rate that does not lead to the long-term decline of biological diversity. The Convention acknowledges that substantial investments are required to conserve biological diversity and it argues, however, that conservation will bring us significant environmental, economic and social benefits in return. The Convention on Biological Diversity of 2010 banned some forms of geoengineering, some of the many issues dealt with under the convention include, Measures the incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. Regulated access to resources and traditional knowledge, including Prior Informed Consent of the party providing resources. Access to and transfer of technology, including biotechnology, to the governments and/or local communities that provided traditional knowledge and/or biodiversity resources, coordination of a global directory of taxonomic expertise. National reporting on efforts to implement treaty commitments, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety of the Convention, also known as the Biosafety Protocol, was adopted in January 2000. The Biosafety Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. The Biosafety Protocol makes clear that products from new technologies must be based on the precautionary principle, the required number of 50 instruments of ratification/accession/approval/acceptance by countries was reached in May 2003
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Chemical Weapons Convention
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The Chemical Weapons Convention is an arms control treaty which outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors. The treaty entered force in 1997. The parties main obligation under the convention is to prohibit the use and production of chemical weapons, the destruction activities are verified by the OPCW. As of April 2016,192 states have given their consent to be bound by the CWC, israel has signed but not ratified the agreement, while three other UN member states have neither signed nor acceded to the treaty. Most recently, Angola deposited its instrument of accession to the CWC on 16 September 2015, as of October 2016, about 93% of the worlds declared stockpile of chemical weapons had been destroyed. On 3 September 1992 the Conference on Disarmament submitted to the U. N. General Assembly its annual report, the General Assembly approved the Convention on 30 November 1992, and the U. N. Secretary-General then opened the Convention for signature in Paris on 13 January 1993. The CWC remained open for signature until its entry into force on 29 April 1997,180 days after the deposit of the 65th instrument of ratification, the convention augments the Geneva Protocol of 1925 for chemical weapons and includes extensive verification measures such as on-site inspections. It does not, however, cover biological weapons, the convention is administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which acts as the legal platform for specification of the CWC provisions. The Conference of the States Parties is mandated to change the CWC, the Technical Secretariat of the organization conducts inspections to ensure compliance of member states. These inspections target destruction facilities, chemical production facilities which have been dismantled or converted for civil use. The Secretariat may furthermore conduct investigations of alleged use of chemical weapons, the classification is based on the quantities of the substance produced commercially for legitimate purposes. Each class is split into Part A, which are chemicals that can be used directly as weapons and this includes all such chemicals, regardless of their origin or of their method of production, and regardless of whether they are produced in facilities, in munitions or elsewhere. Schedule 1 chemicals have few, or no uses outside chemical weapons and these may be produced or used for research, medical, pharmaceutical or chemical weapon defence testing purposes but production above 100 grams per year must be declared to the OPCW. A country is limited to possessing a maximum of 1 tonne of these materials, examples are sulfur mustard and nerve agents, and substances which are solely used as precursor chemicals in their manufacture. A few of these chemicals have very small scale non-military applications, schedule 2 chemicals have legitimate small-scale applications. Manufacture must be declared and there are restrictions on export to countries which are not CWC signatories, an example is thiodiglycol which can be used in the manufacture of mustard agents, but is also used as a solvent in inks. Schedule 3 chemicals have large-scale uses apart from chemical weapons, plants which manufacture more than 30 tonnes per year must be declared and can be inspected, and there are restrictions on export to countries which are not CWC signatories. The treaty also deals with carbon compounds called in the treaty discrete organic chemicals and these are any carbon compounds apart from long chain polymers, oxides, sulfides and metal carbonates, such as organophosphates
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CITES
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CITES is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals. It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the convention was opened for signature in 1973 and CITES entered into force on 1 July 1975. In order to ensure that the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was not violated, as of 2015, Secretary-General of the CITES Secretariat is John E. Scanlon. CITES is one of the largest and oldest conservation and sustainable use agreements in existence, participation is voluntary, and countries that have agreed to be bound by the Convention are known as Parties. Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties, it does not take the place of national laws, rather it provides a framework respected by each Party, which must adopt their own domestic legislation to implement CITES at the national level. Often, domestic legislation is either non-existent, or with penalties with the gravity of the crime, funding for the activities of the Secretariat and Conference of the Parties meetings comes from a Trust Fund derived from Party contributions. Trust Fund money is not available to Parties to improve implementation or compliance and these activities, and all those outside Secretariat activities must find external funding, mostly from donor countries and regional organizations such as the European Union. The Secretariat, when informed of an infraction by a Party, the Secretariat will give the Party time to respond to the allegations and may provide technical assistance to prevent further infractions. Other actions the Convention itself does not provide for but that derive from subsequent COP resolutions may be taken against the offending Party, infractions may include negligence with respect to permit issuing, excessive trade, lax enforcement, and failing to produce annual reports. As of 2013 the demand was massive and had expanded to thousands of species previously considered unremarkable. The text of the Convention was finalized at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington, united States, on 3 March 1973. It was then open for signature until 31 December 1974 and it entered into force after the 10th ratification by a signatory country, on 1 July 1975. Countries that signed the Convention become Parties by ratifying, accepting or approving it, by the end of 2003, all signatory countries had become Parties. States that were not signatories may become Parties by acceding to the Convention, as of October 2016, the Convention has 183 parties, including 182 states and the European Union. The CITES Convention includes provisions and rules for trade with non-Parties, UN observer the Holy See is also not a member. The Faroe Islands, a country in the Kingdom of Denmark, is also treated as a non-Party to CITES. The REIO can vote at CITES meetings with the number of votes representing the number of members in the REIO, at that time it entered into force only for those States that had accepted the amendment. The amended text of the Convention will apply automatically to any State that becomes a Party after 29 November 2013, for States that became party to the Convention before that date and have not accepted the amendment, it will enter into force 60 days after they accept it
People's Socialist Republic of Albania
Albania. Where appropriate, articles should be placed in the subcategories. This category may contain articles about treaties concluded or ratified by Albania since 22 March 1992, which was the date democratic elections were held to replace the People's Socialist Republic of Albania.