1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Dutch language
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It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after English and German. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English and is said to be roughly in between them, Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, the official name for Dutch is Nederlands, and its dialects have their own names, e. g. Hollands, West-Vlaams. The use of the word Vlaams to describe Standard Dutch for the variations prevalent in Flanders and used there, however, is common in the Netherlands, the Dutch language has been known under a variety of names. It derived from the Old Germanic word theudisk, one of the first names used for the non-Romance languages of Western Europe. It literarily means the language of the people, that is. The term was used as opposed to Latin, the language of writing. In the first text in which it is found, dating from 784, later, theudisca appeared also in the Oaths of Strasbourg to refer to the Germanic portion of the oath. This led inevitably to confusion since similar terms referred to different languages, owing to Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English term came to refer exclusively to the Dutch. A notable exception is Pennsylvania Dutch, which is a West Central German variety called Deitsch by its speakers, Jersey Dutch, on the other hand, as spoken until the 1950s in New Jersey, is a Dutch-based creole. In Dutch itself, Diets went out of common use - although Platdiets is still used for the transitional Limburgish-Ripuarian Low Dietsch dialects in northeast Belgium, Nederlands, the official Dutch word for Dutch, did not become firmly established until the 19th century. This designation had been in use as far back as the end of the 15th century, one of them was it reflected a distinction with Hoogduits, High Dutch, meaning the language spoken in Germany. The Hoog was later dropped, and thus, Duits narrowed down in meaning to refer to the German language. g, in English, too, Netherlandic is regarded as a more accurate term for the Dutch language, but is hardly ever used. Old Dutch branched off more or less around the same time Old English, Old High German, Old Frisian and Old Saxon did. During that period, it forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, on the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in nowadays France and Germany. The division in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, one of the few moments linguists can detect somewhat of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age, the Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups, East, West, and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period, Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots, Frisian, Low German and High German
3.
Renaissance Revival architecture
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The divergent forms of Renaissance architecture in different parts of Europe, particularly in France and Italy, has added to the difficulty of defining and recognizing Neo-Renaissance architecture. The movement grew from scientific observations of nature, in human anatomy. Neo-Renaissance architecture is formed by not only the original Italian architecture, in England the Renaissance tended to manifest itself in large square tall houses such as Longleat House. Often these buildings had symmetrical towers which hint at the evolution from medieval fortified architecture and this is particularly evident at Hatfield House built between 1607 and 1611, where medieval towers jostle with a large Italian cupola. If this were not confusing enough, the new Neo-Renaissance then frequently borrowed architectural elements from the succeeding Mannerist period, mannerism and Baroque being two very opposing styles of architecture. Mannerism was exemplified by the Palazzo del Te and Baroque by the Wurzburg Residenz, as a consequence a self-consciously Neo-Renaissance manner first began to appear circa 1840. By 1890 this movement was already in decline, the Hagues Peace Palace completed in 1913, in a heavy French Neo-Renaissance manner was one of the last notable buildings in this style. Charles Barry introduced the Neo-Renaissance to England with his design of the Travellers Club, the style is characterized by original Renaissance motifs, taken from such Quattrocento architects as Alberti. These motifs included rusticated masonry and quoins, windows framed by architraves and doors crowned by pediments, if a building were of several floors the uppermost floor usually had small square windows representing the minor mezzanine floor of the original Renaissance designs. However, the Neo-renaissance style later came to incorporate Romanesque and Baroque features not found in the original Renaissance architecture which was more severe in its design. Like all architectural styles the Neo-Renaissance did not appear overnight fully formed but evolved slowly, one of the very first signs of its emergence was the Würzburg Womens Prison, which was erected in 1809 designed by Peter Speeth. This building foreshadows similar effects in the work of the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson whose work in the Neo-Renaissance style was popular in the USA during the 1880s, richardsons style at the end or the revival era was a severe mix of both Romanesque and Renaissance features. This was exemplified by his Marshall Field Warehouse in Chicago, however, while the beginning of Neo-Renaissance period can be defined by its simplicity and severity, what came between was far more ornate in its design. This period can be defined by some of the opera houses of the Europe, such as Gottfried Sempers Burgtheater in Vienna. This ornate form of the Neo-Renaissance, originating from France, is known as the Second Empire style. By 1875 it had become the style in Europe for all public and bureaucratic buildings. In England, where Sir George Gilbert Scott designed the London Foreign Office in this style between 1860 and 1875, it also incorporated certain Palladian features. In Austria, it was pioneered by such names as Rudolf Eitelberger
4.
The Hague
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The Hague is a city on the western coast of the Netherlands, and the capital city of the province of South Holland. With a population of 520,704 inhabitants and more than one million including the suburbs, it is the third-largest city of the Netherlands. The Rotterdam The Hague Metropolitan Area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 12th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands, which constitutionally is Amsterdam. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to live at Huis ten Bosch and works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, the Hague is also home to the world headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell and numerous other major Dutch companies. The Hague originated around 1230, when Count Floris IV of Holland purchased land alongside a pond, in 1248, his son and successor William II, King of the Romans, decided to extend the residence to a palace, which would later be called the Binnenhof. He died in 1256 before this palace was completed but parts of it were finished by his son Floris V, of which the Ridderzaal and it is still used for political events, such as the annual speech from the throne by the Dutch monarch. From the 13th century onwards, the counts of Holland used The Hague as their administrative centre, the village that originated around the Binnenhof was first mentioned as Haga in a charter dating from 1242. In the 15th century, the smarter des Graven hage came into use, literally The Counts Wood, with connotations like The Counts Hedge, s-Gravenhage was officially used for the city from the 17th century onwards. Today, this name is used in some official documents like birth. The city itself uses Den Haag in all its communication and their seat was located in The Hague. At the beginning of the Eighty Years War, the absence of city walls proved disastrous, in 1575, the States of Holland even considered demolishing the city but this proposal was abandoned, after mediation by William of Orange. From 1588, The Hague also became the seat of the government of the Dutch Republic, in order for the administration to maintain control over city matters, The Hague never received official city status, although it did have many of the privileges normally granted only to cities. In modern administrative law, city rights have no place anymore, only in 1806, when the Kingdom of Holland was a puppet state of the First French Empire, was the settlement granted city rights by Louis Bonaparte. After the Napoleonic Wars, modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands were combined in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to form a buffer against France, as a compromise, Brussels and Amsterdam alternated as capital every two years, with the government remaining in The Hague. After the separation of Belgium in 1830, Amsterdam remained the capital of the Netherlands, when the government started to play a more prominent role in Dutch society after 1850, The Hague quickly expanded. The growing city annexed the rural municipality of Loosduinen partly in 1903, the city sustained heavy damage during World War II
5.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
6.
International Court of Justice
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The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial branch of the United Nations. Established in 1945 by the UN Charter, the Court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice, the Statute of the International Court of Justice, similar to that of its predecessor, is the main constitutional document constituting and regulating the Court. The Courts workload covers a range of judicial activity. Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter authorizes the UN Security Council to enforce Court rulings, however, such enforcement is subject to the veto power of the five permanent members of the Council, which the United States used in the Nicaragua case. The election process is set out in Articles 4–19 of the ICJ statute, elections are staggered, with five judges elected every three years to ensure continuity within the court. Should a judge die in office, the practice has generally been to elect a judge in an election to complete the term. No two judges may be nationals of the same country, according to Article 9, the membership of the Court is supposed to represent the main forms of civilization and of the principal legal systems of the world. Essentially, that has meant common law, civil law and socialist law, the exception was China, which did not have a judge on the Court from 1967 to 1985 because it did not put forward a candidate. Judicial independence is dealt with specifically in Articles 16–18, judges of the ICJ are not able to hold any other post or act as counsel. A judge can be dismissed only by a vote of the other members of the Court. Despite these provisions, the independence of ICJ judges has been questioned, judges may deliver joint judgments or give their own separate opinions. Judges may also deliver separate dissenting opinions, Article 31 of the statute sets out a procedure whereby ad hoc judges sit on contentious cases before the Court. The system allows any party to a case if it otherwise does not have one of that partys nationals sitting on the Court to select one additional person to sit as a judge on that case only. It is thus possible that as many as seventeen judges may sit on one case, the system may seem strange when compared with domestic court processes, but its purpose is to encourage states to submit cases. Although this system does not sit well with the nature of the body. Ad hoc judges usually vote in favor of the state that appointed them, generally, the Court sits as full bench, but in the last fifteen years, it has on occasion sat as a chamber. Articles 26–29 of the statute allow the Court to form smaller chambers, usually 3 or 5 judges, Two types of chambers are contemplated by Article 26, firstly, chambers for special categories of cases, and second, the formation of ad hoc chambers to hear particular disputes. In 1993, a chamber was established, under Article 26 of the ICJ statute
7.
Permanent Court of Arbitration
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The Permanent Court of Arbitration is an intergovernmental organization located at The Hague in the Netherlands. The cases span a range of issues involving territorial and maritime boundaries, sovereignty, human rights, international investment. The PCA is constituted through two separate multilateral conventions with a membership of 121 states. The organization is not a United Nations agency, the Peace Palace was built from 1907 until 1913 for PCA in The Hague. In addition the houses the Hague Academy of International Law, Peace Palace Library. The Administrative Council is a composed of all diplomatic representatives of Member States accredited to the Netherlands. It is presided by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and it is responsible for direction and control of the International Bureau, directs the organisations budget and reports on its activities. The International Bureau is the Secretariat of the PCA and is headed by the Secretary-General and it provides linguistic, research, administrative support to PCA arbitration tribunals. The judges or arbitrators that hear cases are called Members of the Court, Members of each member state together form a national group. Members may be selected in arbitration cases in which the PCA provides support, national Groups may propose candidates for International Court of Justice members. The PCA sometimes gets confused with the International Court of Justice, the PCA is however not part of the UN system, although it does have observer status in the UN General Assembly since 1993. In the Articles 30-57 of the Hague Convention of 1899 the rules of procedure are outlined. These rules are the version of pre-existing treaties among the states. They were amended in 1907. They came in again in 1920 to serve the Permanent Court of international Justice. The first act of parties is the submission of the so called compromisis, stating the issue, basically the lawsuit is divided in two phases, written pleadings and oral discussion. During the first part of the procedure the agents and the barristers of parties submit, in the second phase there is a verbal debate in front of the Court that retires once the debate is over to deliberate and conclude the case by a simple majority of votes. The award binding on the parties and no appeal is allowed, however, a minor restriction for revision is made in case fresh evidence of a decisive nature has come up between the debate and the award. Naturally, any decision as to its relevance and the subsequent admission of the request is up to the Court and it is this Article 55, incidentally, which led to heated argument within the body of the Third Commission in 1899
8.
Carnegie Foundation (Netherlands)
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The Carnegie Foundation is an organization based in The Hague, Netherlands. It was founded in 1903 by Andrew Carnegie in order to manage his donation of US$1.5 million, the Peace Palace was built to house the Permanent Court of Arbitration and a library of international law. The Foundation became the owner of the Peace Palace because the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The Foundation has five Dutch board members, of four are chosen by the Dutch monarch. The current chairman of the Carnegie Foundation is Bernard Bot, since 1931, the foundation has been entrusted with the annual awarding of the Wateler Peace Prize. The Carnegie Foundation is a member of the Hague Academic Coalition and this is a consortium of institutions in the fields of international relations, international law and international development, based in The Hague. The Carnegie Foundation is one of the partners of The Hague Institute for Global Justice. The Peace Palace and Carnegie Foundation website List of chairmen Hague Justice Portal, Carnegie Foundation
9.
United Nations
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The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
10.
Louis Marie Cordonnier
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Louis Marie Cordonnier was a French architect, born in Haubourdin and associated principally with Lille and the French Flanders region. Son of the architect Jean-Baptiste Cordonnier, Cordonnier studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and he returned to Lille for his first major commission, the 1881 town hall of Loos. His chosen style was a strongly regional Flemish Renaissance Revival in brick, further civic commissions in the area culminated in Cordonniers best known work, the Peace Palace in The Hague, seat of the International Court of Justice. There his neo-Flemish entry won a competition against far more modern competitors like Hendrik Berlage. The jurys choice proved controversial enough to fuel lawsuits for seven years, Cordonnier alternated his regional Flemish style with occasional essays in the neo-classical Beaux-Arts style so prevalent in Paris during these years. Towards the end of his career he was joined in practice by his son, thérèse, Lisieux, the second-largest pilgrimage site in France, after Lourdes, 1923–1959 Church of St. Vaast, Béthune, 1924–1927 Church of St. Of the 23 such municipal towers within Nord-Pas-de-Calais and the Somme, Cordonnier designed those in Loos, Dunkirk, Comines, media related to Louis Marie Cordonnier at Wikimedia Commons
11.
International law
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Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states, analogous entities, such as the Holy See, and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, the field of study combines two main branches, the law of nations and international agreements and conventions. The Italian jurist Sir Alberico Gentili was the first to write on public international law and it is usually distinguished from private international law, which concerns the resolution of conflict of laws. The concept of nationalism became increasingly important as people began to see themselves as citizens of a nation with a distinct national identity. Men who take up arms against one another in public war do not cease on this account to be moral beings, responsible to one another and it does not admit of the use of poison in any way, nor of the wanton devastation of a district. It admits of deception, but disclaims acts of perfidy, and, in general, because international law is a relatively new area of law its development and propriety in applicable areas are often subject to dispute. Under article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, in addition, judicial decisions and teachings may be applied as subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law. International treaty law comprises obligations states expressly and voluntarily accept between themselves in treaties, customary international law is derived from the consistent practice of States accompanied by opinio juris, i. e. the conviction of States that the consistent practice is required by a legal obligation. Judgments of international tribunals as well as scholarly works have traditionally looked to as persuasive sources for custom in addition to direct evidence of state behavior. Attempts to codify customary international law picked up momentum after the Second World War with the formation of the International Law Commission, codified customary law is made the binding interpretation of the underlying custom by agreement through treaty. For states not party to treaties, the work of the ILC may still be accepted as custom applying to those states. General principles of law are commonly recognized by the major legal systems of the world. Certain norms of international law achieve the binding force of peremptory norms as to all states with no permissible derogations. Colombia v Perú ICJ6, recognising custom as a source of international law, belgium v Spain ICJ1, only the state where a corporation is incorporated has standing to bring an action for damages for economic loss. Where there are disputes about the meaning and application of national laws. The subjective approach, which takes into consideration i. the idea behind the treaty, ii. treaties in their context, what the writers intended when they wrote the text. A third approach, which bases itself on interpretation in the light of its object and purpose, i. e. the interpretation that best suits the goal of the treaty and these are general rules of interpretation, specific rules might exist in specific areas of international law. Greece v United Kingdom ICJ1, ICJ had no jurisdiction to hear a dispute between the UK government and a private Greek businessman under the terms of a treaty
12.
The Hague Academy of International Law
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The Hague Academy of International Law is a center for high-level education in both public and private international law housed in the Peace Palace in The Hague, the Netherlands. Courses are taught in English and French and, except for External Programme Courses, are held in the Peace Palace, the Academy is famous for its Summer Courses Programme. Since its creation in 1923, The Hague Academy of International Law has occupied premises at the Peace Palace, next to the Peace Palace building the Academy’s facilities include the Academy Hall built for international conferences, the Peace Palace Library as well as further administrative accommodations. The new buildings were planned and realized by architects Michael Wilford, alongside The Hague Academy of International Law the Peace Palace houses highest judicial institutions such as the International Court of Justice and the Bureau of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. In the context of the movement for the establishment of peace through law, the Dutch Government took up the idea, and the International Law Association in turn examined the question. The Dutch Lawyer Tobias M. C, asser proposed a plan that envisaged more or less what the Academy was to become, with courses held from July to October. Asser received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911 and contributed a part of the money to the Academy. The inauguration of the Academy was planned for October 1914, but World War I broke out, and preparations could not be resumed until 1921. When the Summer Courses started on 14 July 1923, at the Peace Palace in The Hague,353 students originating from 31 countries attended, of whom 35 were women. The Academy was awarded the Wateler Peace Prize, the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize, the Order of Rio Branco, Brazil, the Academy has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 34 times between 1915 and 1956. The Academy is part of the Hague Academic Coalition, the Academy’s academic activities and policies are defined by the Curatorium. It consists of members of different nationalities, who are known in the academic or diplomatic worlds. The president of the Curatorium is a distinguished jurist who generally has extensive experience of international, among the most recent presidents have been Roberto Ago, Nicolas Valticos and Boutros Boutros-Ghali. President Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, feliciano, former Chairman, Appellate Body, WTO, former Senior Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the Philippines, Diego P. V. M. Trooboff, Senior Counsel, Covington & Burling, Washington, D. C, member of the District of Columbia and New York Bars, Hanqin Xue, Judge at the International Court of Justice, Secretary General Yves Daudet, Professor emeritus at the University Paris I. The Administrative Council is in charge of the financial and material aspects of the Academy’s operations and this is a Dutch body whose members are of Dutch nationality, and whose president is always a leading personality. The administrative Council has close ties with the Dutch Carnegie Foundation which owns, the Summer Courses of the Academy are held in July and August, each session lasts three weeks. These courses are given in the form of a series of lectures, the Summer programme is directed to advanced students and practitioners seeking a deeper understanding of international law, public or private
13.
Peace Palace Library
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The Peace Palace Library is a collection of studies and references specializing in international law. It is located in The Hague, Netherlands, and was established to support the Permanent Court of Justice, the Library is one of the oldest libraries dedicated to international law. The Library is open to all scholars and students of international law, the Dutch Carnegie Foundation was created in 1903. It managed a financial donation by Andrew Carnegie, which made the construction of the Peace Palace possible, the Palace was completed in 1913, just before the outbreak of the First World War. Now the Carnegie Foundation is subsidized by the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs, since 1913 the Foundation has remained the owner of the Palace, and it still runs the Peace Palace Library. The Peace Palace is located at Carnegieplein, The Hague, Netherlands, the Palace was built to accommodate the Permanent Court of Arbitration, but Carnegie insisted that room be made available also for a legal library. The Peace Palace Library resided in the Palace itself until 2007, the Peace Palace Library has collected publications since 1913, and now offers over a million titles. A large part is searchable through the Library’s online catalogue, which classifies also book items, the Library also uses a modern classification system with around 4,500 keywords. The collection of the Palace further includes private international law, international law, international bankruptcy law. In 2012 the Peace Palace Library and the Institute for Environmental Security began compiling a database on the proposed Law of Ecocide. The Library also collects books on topics of law, such as comparative law, domestic public and constitutional law, criminal law. The library houses a few collections, of which the Grotius Collection. The Library has the worlds largest collection of works by Hugo Grotius, duynstee, Bob, Meijer, Daan, Tilanus, Floris, et al. The Building of Peace, A hundred years of work on Peace through Law, the Peace Palace 1913-2013, The Hague, Carnegie Foundation, Peace Palace Library website
14.
Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907
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The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. The First Hague Conference was held in 1899 and the Second Hague Conference in 1907, along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the body of secular international law. A third conference was planned for 1914 and later rescheduled for 1915, the 1874 Brussels Declaration listed 56 articles that drew inspiration from the Lieber Code. Much of the regulations in the Hague Conventions were borrowed heavily from the Lieber Code, both conferences included negotiations concerning disarmament, the laws of war and war crimes. This effort, however, failed at both conferences, instead a voluntary forum for arbitration, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, was established, the peace conference was proposed on 24 August 1898 by Russian Tsar Nicholas II. Nicholas and Count Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov, his minister, were instrumental in initiating the conference. The conference opened on 18 May 1899, the Tsars birthday, the treaties, declarations, and final act of the conference were signed on 29 July of that year, and they entered into force on 4 September 1900. Convention with respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land This voluminous convention contains the laws to be used in all wars on land between signatories, inhabitants of occupied territories may not be forced into military service against their own country and collective punishment is forbidden. The section was ratified by all major powers mentioned above and it too was ratified by all major powers. The declaration was ratified by all the powers mentioned above, except the United Kingdom. Ratified by all major powers, except the United States and this directly banned soft-point bullets and cross-tipped bullets. It was ratified by all major powers, except the United States, the second conference, in 1907, resulted in conventions containing only few major advancements from the 1899 Convention. However, the meeting of powers did prefigure later 20th-century attempts at international cooperation. The second conference was called at the suggestion of U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, the Second Peace Conference was held from 15 June to 18 October 1907. The intent of the conference was to expand upon the 1899 Hague Convention by modifying some parts and adding new topics, in particular, the 1907 conference had an increased focus on naval warfare. The British attempted to secure limitation of armaments, but these efforts were defeated by the powers, led by Germany. Germany also rejected proposals for compulsory arbitration, however, the conference did enlarge the machinery for voluntary arbitration and established conventions regulating the collection of debts, rules of war, and the rights and obligations of neutrals. The treaties, declarations, and final act of the Second Conference were signed on 18 October 1907, Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land This convention confirms, with minor modifications, the provisions of Convention of 1899
15.
Andrew Dickson White
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Andrew Dickson White was an American historian and educator, who was the cofounder of Cornell University and served as its first president for nearly two decades. He was known for expanding the scope of college curriculae, a politician, he had served as state senator in New York. He was later appointed as a US diplomat to Germany and Russia and he was born on November 7,1832 in Homer, New York, to Clara and Horace White. Clara was the daughter of Andrew Dickson, a New York State Assemblyman in 1832 and his wife, and Horace was the son of Asa White, a farmer from Massachusetts and their once-successful farm was ruined by a fire when Horace was 13. Despite little formal education and struggles with poverty after his family lost its farm, Horace White became a businessman, in 1839 he opened what became a successful bank in Syracuse. Horace and Clara White had two children, Andrew Dickson and his brother, Andrew was baptized in 1835 at the Calvary Episcopal Church on the town green in Homer. He married first, on September 27,1857, Mary Amanda Outwater, daughter of Peter Outwater and Lucia M. Phillips of Syracuse. Marys maternal grandmother Amanda Danforth, daughter of Asa Danforth, Jr. and wife of Elijah Phillips, Jr. was the first white child born in what would become Onondaga County, New York. After his wife died in 1887, White went on a tour and traveled in Europe with his close friend, Daniel Willard Fiske. After two years as a widower, in 1890, White married Helen Magill, the daughter of Edward Magill and she was the first woman in the United States to earn a Ph. D. Like her husband, Helen was a social scientist and educator, together, Helen and Andrew had one daughter, Karin White. One of Andrews cousins was Edwin White, who became an artist of the Luminism/Hudson River schools and his nephew was Horace White, governor of New York. Beginning in the fall of 1849, White enrolled as an undergraduate at Geneva College at the insistence of his father and he was inducted as member of Sigma Phi. In his autobiography, he recalled that he had felt that his time at Geneva was wasted by being at the small Episcopalian school, rather than continue wasting his time, White dropped out in 1850. After a period of estrangement, White persuaded his father to let him transfer to Yale College, at Yale, White was a classmate of Daniel Coit Gilman, who would later serve as first president of Johns Hopkins University. The two were members of the Skull and Bones secret society and would remain close friends and they traveled together in Europe after graduation and served together on the Venezuela Boundary Commission. His roommate was Thomas Frederick Davies, Sr. who later became the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan. Alpha Sigma Phi inducted White as a member in 1850 and he served as editor of the fraternitys publication, White remained active in the fraternity for the rest of his life, founding the Cornell chapter and serving as the national president from 1913 to 1915
16.
Andrew Carnegie
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He built a leadership role as a philanthropist for the United States and the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away to charities, foundations and his 1889 article proclaiming The Gospel of Wealth called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and it stimulated a wave of philanthropy. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and emigrated in 1848 to the United States with his parents, Carnegie started work as a telegrapher and by the 1860s had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges and oil derricks. He accumulated further wealth as a bond salesman raising money for American enterprise in Europe and he built Pittsburghs Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J. P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million. It became the U. S. Steel Corporation, after selling Carnegie Steel, he surpassed John D. Rockefeller as the richest American for the next couple of years. Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to philanthropy, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, education. Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in a typical weavers cottage with only one main room, the main room served as a living room, dining room and bedroom. He was named after his legal grandfather, in 1836, the family moved to a larger house in Edgar Street, following the demand for more heavy damask from which his father, William Carnegie, benefited. He was educated at the Free School in Dunfermline, which had been a gift to the town by the philanthropist Adam Rolland of Gask, Lauders son, also named George Lauder, grew up with Andrew and would become his business partner. When Carnegie was thirteen, his father had fallen on hard times as a handloom weaver. His mother helped support the family by assisting her brother who was a cobbler and she eventually became the primary breadwinner by the 1840s. Struggling to make ends meet, the Carnegies then decided to move with his family to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Andrews family had to borrow money from the Lauders in order to migrate. Allegheny was an industrial area that produced many products including wool. The Made in Allegheny label used on these and other diversified products was becoming more and more popular. His first job at age 13 in 1848 was as a bobbin boy and his starting wage was $1.20 per week. Andrews father, William Carnegie, started off working in a cotton mill and his mother, Margaret Morrison Carnegie, earned money by binding shoes. In 1849, Carnegie became a messenger boy in the Pittsburgh Office of the Ohio Telegraph Company, at $2.50 per week. He was a hard worker and would memorize all of the locations of Pittsburghs businesses
17.
Permanent Court of International Justice
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The Permanent Court of International Justice, often called the World Court, existed from 1922 to 1946. It was an international court attached to the League of Nations, created in 1920, the Court was initially well-received from states and academics alike, with many cases submitted to it for its first decade of operation. With the heightened tension of the 1930s, the Court became less used. By a resolution by the League of Nations on 18 April 1946, the Courts mandatory jurisdiction came from three sources, the Optional Clause of the League of Nations, general international conventions and special bipartite international treaties. Cases could also be submitted directly by states, but they were not bound to submit material unless it fell into three categories. The Court could issue either judgments or advisory opinions, judgments were directly binding while advisory opinions were not. In practice, member states of the League of Nations followed advisory opinions anyway, as they feared that otherwise, they could undermine the moral and legal authority of the Court, on occasion, the Court was accused of extending its jurisdiction. Strictly speaking, it was allowed to only in matters of international law. An international court had long proposed, Pierre Dubois suggested it in 1305. Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, created after the Treaty of Versailles, the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice was accepted in Geneva on December 13,1920. The Court elected Bernard Loder as President and Max Huber as Vice-President, on 14 February the Court was officially opened, and rules of procedure were established on 24 March, when the court ended its first session. The court first sat to decide cases on 15 June, the initial reaction to the Court was good, from politicians, practising lawyers and academics alike. The Court was given nine cases during 1922 and 1923, however, with judgments called cases, a replacement for Ruy Barbosa was also found, with the election of Epitácio Lindolfo da Silva Pessoa on 10 September 1923. During the same year, a new President and Vice-President were elected, at the elections on 4 September 1924, Charles Andre Weiss was again elected Vice-President and Max Huber became the second President of the Court. Judicial pensions were created at the time, with a judge being given 1/30th of his annual pay for every year he had served once he had both retired and turned 65. 1925 was a busy year for the court, which sat for 210 days, with four extraordinary sessions as well as the ordinary session. 1926 saw reduced business, with only one session and one extraordinary session, it was, however. Despite the reduction of work in 1926,1927 was another busy year, the judgments were in the Belgium-China Case, the Case Concerning the Factory at Chorzow, the Lotus Case and a continuation of the Mavrommatis Jerusalem Concessions Case
18.
League of Nations
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The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organisation founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organisation whose mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, at its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, however, the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them, after a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain, the onset of the Second World War showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent any future world war. The League lasted for 26 years, the United Nations replaced it after the end of the Second World War on 20 April 1946 and inherited a number of agencies and organisations founded by the League. As historians William H. Harbaugh and Ronald E. Powaski point out, the organisation was international in scope, with a third of the members of parliaments serving as members of the IPU by 1914. Its aims were to encourage governments to solve disputes by peaceful means. Annual conferences were held to help refine the process of international arbitration. Its structure consisted of a council headed by a president, which would later be reflected in the structure of the League, at the start of the 20th century, two power blocs emerged from alliances between the European Great Powers. It was these alliances that, at the start of the First World War in 1914 and this was the first major war in Europe between industrialised countries, and the first time in Western Europe that the results of industrialisation had been dedicated to war. By the time the fighting ended in November 1918, the war had had an impact, affecting the social, political and economic systems of Europe. Anti-war sentiment rose across the world, the First World War was described as the war to end all wars, the causes identified included arms races, alliances, militaristic nationalism, secret diplomacy, and the freedom of sovereign states to enter into war for their own benefit. Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, a British political scientist, coined the term League of Nations in 1914, together with Lord Bryce, he played a leading role in the founding of the group of internationalist pacifists known as the Bryce Group, later the League of Nations Union. The group became more influential among the public and as a pressure group within the then governing Liberal Party. In Dickinsons 1915 pamphlet After the War he wrote of his League of Peace as being essentially an organisation for arbitration and conciliation
19.
Hugo Grotius
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Hugo Grotius, also known as Huig de Groot or Hugo de Groot, was a Dutch jurist. Along with the works of Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili, Grotius laid the foundations for international law. A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was imprisoned for his involvement in the intra-Calvinist disputes of the Dutch Republic and he wrote most of his major works in exile in France. Because of his theological underpinning of free trade, he is considered an economic theologist. Born in Delft during the Dutch Revolt, Hugo was the first child of Jan de Groot, a prodigious learner, Hugo entered the University of Leiden when he was just eleven years old. There he studied some of the most acclaimed intellectuals in northern Europe, including Franciscus Junius, Joseph Justus Scaliger. Omnes, & emendati, & Notis, siue Februis Hug, in Holland, Grotius earned an appointment as advocate to The Hague in 1599 and then as official historiographer for the States of Holland in 1601. The Dutch were at war with Spain and Portugal when the merchant ship Santa Catarina. The scandal led to a judicial hearing and a wider campaign to sway public opinion. It was in this context that representatives of the Company called upon Grotius to draft a polemical defence of the seizure. The result of Grotius efforts in 1604/05 was a long, theory-laden treatise that he provisionally entitled De Indis, Grotius sought to ground his defense of the seizure in terms of the natural principles of justice. In this, he had cast a net much wider than the case at hand, his interest was in the source, the treatise was never published in full during Grotius lifetime, perhaps because the court ruling in favor of the Company preempted the need to garner public support. In The Free Sea Grotius formulated the new principle that the sea was international territory, Grotius, by claiming free seas, provided suitable ideological justification for the Dutch breaking up of various trade monopolies through its formidable naval power. In 1608 he married Maria van Reigersbergen, with whom he would have eight children and who would be invaluable in helping him and the family to weather the storm to come. The domestic dissension resulting over Arminius professorship was overshadowed by the war with Spain. The new peace would move the focus to the controversy. The controversy expanded when the Remonstrant theologian Conrad Vorstius was appointed to replace Jacobus Arminius as the chair at Leiden. Vorstius was soon seen by Counter-Remonstrants as moving beyond the teachings of Arminius into Socinianism, leading the call for Vorstius removal was theology professor Sibrandus Lubbertus
20.
Erasmus
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Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, known as Erasmus or Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch/Netherlandish Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Erasmus was a scholar and wrote in a pure Latin style. Among humanists he enjoyed the sobriquet Prince of the Humanists, and has called the crowning glory of the Christian humanists. He also wrote On Free Will, The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia, Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works. Erasmus remained a member of the Roman Catholic Church all his life, remaining committed to reforming the Church and he also held to the Catholic doctrine of free will, which some Reformers rejected in favor of the doctrine of predestination. His middle road approach disappointed and even angered scholars in both camps, Erasmus died suddenly in Basel in 1536 while preparing to return to Brabant, and was buried in Basel Minster, the former cathedral of the city. A bronze statue of him was erected in his city of birth in 1622, Desiderius Erasmus is reported to have been born in Rotterdam on 28 October in the late 1460s. He was named after Saint Erasmus of Formiae, whom Erasmuss father Gerard personally favored, a 17th-century legend has it that Erasmus was first named Geert Geerts, but this is unfounded. He was born in Rotterdam, but there are insufficient records to confirm that, a well-known wooden picture indicates, Goudæ conceptus, Roterodami natus. According to an article by historian Renier Snooy, Erasmus was born in Gouda, the exact year of his birth is debated, with most biographers citing the year as 1466. Some evidence confirming 1466 can be found in Erasmuss own words, of twenty-three statements Erasmus made about his age, all and he was christened Erasmus after the saint of that name. Although associated closely with Rotterdam, he lived there for four years. Information on his family and early life comes mainly from vague references in his writings and his parents were not legally married. His father, Gerard, was a Catholic priest and curate in Gouda, little is known of his mother other than that her name was Margaretha Rogerius and she was the daughter of a physician from Zevenbergen, she may have been Gerards housekeeper. Erasmus was given the highest education available to a man of his day. During his stay there the curriculum was renewed by the principal of the school, for the first time ever Greek was taught at a lower level than a university in Europe, and this is where he began learning it. He also gleaned there the importance of a relationship with God but eschewed the harsh rules. His education there ended when plague struck the city about 1483, and his mother, in 1492, poverty forced Erasmus into the consecrated life
21.
Tobias Asser
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Tobias Michel Karel Asser was a Dutch lawyer and legal scholar of Jewish background. In 1911, he won the Nobel Prize for Peace for his role in the formation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the First Hague Conference, Tobias Michel Karel Asser was born on 28 April 1838 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He was son of Carel Daniel Asser, and grandson of Carel Asser and he studied law at the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University and was law professor at the University of Amsterdam. Asser co-founded the Revue de Droit International et de Législation Comparée with John Westlake and he also co-founded the Institut de Droit International. In 1880 he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and he was a delegate of the Netherlands to both Hague Peace Conferences in 1899 and 1907. His work in the creation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the first conference earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911. He also took a hand in the establishment of what would become the Hague Academy of International Law, Asser died on 29 July 1913 in The Hague. A research institute in the fields of Private and Public International Law, European Law, Asser Instituut, based in The Hague, Netherlands. List of Jewish Nobel laureates Tobias Michael Carel Asser, biography in the Jewish Encyclopedia Tobias Asser, biography at NobelPrize. org
22.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
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The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a foreign-policy think tank with centers in Washington, D. C. Moscow, Beirut, Beijing, Brussels, and New Delhi, the organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States. Founded in 1910 by Andrew Carnegie, its work is not formally associated with any political party, in the University of Pennsylvanias 2015 Global Go To Think Tanks Report, Carnegie is ranked the third most influential think tank in the world, after the Brookings Institution and Chatham House. Its headquarters building, prominently located on the Embassy Row section of Massachusetts Avenue, was completed in 1989 on a design by architecture firm Smith and it also hosts the embassy of Papua New Guinea in the U. S. The President of Carnegies Board of Trustees is Harvey V. Fineberg, Andrew Carnegie, like other leading internationalists of his day, believed that war could be eliminated by stronger international laws and organizations. I am drawn more to this cause than to any, he wrote in 1907, Carnegies single largest commitment in this field was his creation of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. On his seventy-fifth birthday, November 25,1910, Andrew Carnegie announced the establishment of the Endowment with a gift of $10 million worth of first mortgage bonds, paying a 5% rate of interest. The interest income generated from these bonds was to be used to fund a new think tank dedicated to advancing the cause of world peace. Carnegie chose longtime adviser Elihu Root, Senator from New York and former Secretary of War and of State, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912, Root served until 1925. Carnegie is often remembered for having built Carnegie libraries, which were a major recipient of his largesse, the libraries were usually funded not by the Endowment but by other Carnegie trusts, operating mainly in the English-speaking world. However, after World War I the Endowment built libraries in Belgium, France, on July 14,1923, the Hague Academy of International Law, an initiative of the Endowment, was formally opened in the Peace Palace at The Hague. The Peace Palace had been built by the Carnegie Foundation in 1913 to house the Permanent Court of Arbitration, in 1925, Nicholas Murray Butler succeeded Elihu Root as president of the Endowment. For his work, including his involvement with the Kellogg–Briand Pact, in November 1944, the Carnegie Endowment published Raphael Lemkins Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, Laws of Occupation—Analysis of Government—Proposals for Redress. The work was the first to bring the genocide into the global lexicon. As chairman, Shotwell pushed for an amendment to establish a permanent United Nations Commission on Human Rights, in December 1945, Butler stepped down after twenty years as president and chairman of the board of trustees. Butler was the last living member of the board selected by Andrew Carnegie in 1910. Alger Hiss briefly succeeded Butler as president of the Endowment in 1946 but resigned in 1949 after being denounced as a communist, Hiss was replaced in the interim by James T. Shotwell. In 1947, the Carnegie Endowments headquarters were moved closer to the United Nations in New York City, in 1949, the Washington branch was shuttered
23.
International Criminal Court
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The International Criminal Court is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal that sits in The Hague in the Netherlands. The ICC has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity. The ICC began functioning on 1 July 2002, the date that the Rome Statute entered into force, the Rome Statute is a multilateral treaty which serves as the ICCs foundational and governing document. States which become party to the Rome Statute, for example by ratifying it, currently, there are 124 states which are party to the Rome Statute and therefore members of the ICC. However, Burundi has given notice that it will withdraw from the Rome Statute. The ICC has four organs, the Presidency, the Judicial Divisions, the Office of the Prosecutor. The President is the most senior judge chosen by his or her peers in the Judicial Division, the Office of the Prosecutor is headed by the Prosecutor who investigates crimes and initiates proceedings before the Judicial Division. The Registry is headed by the Registrar and is charged with managing all the functions of the ICC, including the headquarters, detention unit. The Office of the Prosecutor has opened ten official investigations and is conducting an additional nine preliminary examinations. The convention was signed by 13 states, but none ratified it, following the Second World War, the allied powers established two ad hoc tribunals to prosecute axis power leaders accused of war crimes. The International Military Tribunal, which sat in Nuremberg, prosecuted German leaders while the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo prosecuted Japanese leaders. In 1948 the United Nations General Assembly first recognised the need for a permanent international court to deal with atrocities of the kind prosecuted after the Second World War. In his first book published in 1975, entitled Defining International Aggression, The Search for World Peace, following Trinidad and Tobagos proposal, the General Assembly tasked the ILC with once again drafting a statute for a permanent court. While work began on the draft, the United Nations Security Council established two ad hoc tribunals in the early 1990s, the creation of these tribunals further highlighted the need for a permanent international criminal court. To consider major substantive issues in the statute, the General Assembly established the Ad Hoc Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court. After considering the Committees report, the General Assembly created the Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of the ICC to prepare a draft text. Finally the General Assembly convened a conference in Rome in June 1998, on 17 July 1998, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was adopted by a vote of 120 to 7, with 21 countries abstaining. The seven countries that voted against the treaty were China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar, the United States, following 60 ratifications, the Rome Statute entered into force on 1 July 2002 and the International Criminal Court was formally established
24.
Friedrich Martens
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He represented Russia at the Hague Peace Conferences and helped to settle the first cases of international arbitration, notably the dispute between France and the United Kingdom over Newfoundland. As a scholar, he is probably best remembered today for having edited 15 volumes of Russian international treaties, born to ethnic Estonians parents at Pärnu in the Governorate of Livonia of Russian Empire, Martens was later raised and educated as a German-speaker. In 1868, he started his service at the Russian ministry of foreign affairs, in 1871, he became a lecturer in international law in the university of St. Petersburg, and in 1872 professor of public law in the Imperial School of Law and the Imperial Alexander Lyceum. In 1874, he was selected special legal assistant to Prince Gorchakov, first amongst them must be placed the great Recueil des traités et conventions conclus par la Russie avec les puissances etrangeres. These introductions are based largely on unpublished documents from the Russian archives, of Martens original works his International Law of Civilised Nations is perhaps the best known, it was written in Russian, a German edition appearing in 1884–1885, and a French edition in 1887–1888. It displays much judgment and acumen, though some of the doctrines which it defends by no means command universal assent, Martens was repeatedly chosen to act in international arbitrations. He was the arbitrator in the arbitration of the boundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana which followed the Venezuela Crisis of 1895. He played an important part in the negotiations between his own country and Japan, which led to the peace of Portsmouth and prepared the way for the Russo-Japanese convention and he was employed in laying the foundations for the Hague Peace Conferences. He was one of the Russian plenipotentiaries at the first conference and his visits to the chief capitals of Europe in the early part of 1907 were an important preliminary in the preparation of the programme. He was judge of the Russian supreme prize court established to determine cases arising during the war with Japan and he received honorary degrees from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Yale, he was also one of the runner-up nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1902. He died suddenly in June 1909, the date and circumstances of his ennoblement are not clear. He was never registered in the matricles of the knightage of Livonia or one of the other three Baltic knightages and his surname, Martens, is included in the Russian Heraldic Book No. 14, though it is if this entry relates to him or to another noble of the same name. His social advancement was the remarkable, as it was exclusively based on his professional merits. Friedrich Martens is featured as the character in the novel Professor Martens Departure by Estonian author Jaan Kross. In 1952, the German émigré scholar in the US, Arthur Nussbaum, himself the author of a history of the law of nations, published an article on Martens. Nussbaum set himself the task of analysing the writings and actions of Martens, the Tsars and Tsarinas invariably appear as pure representatives of peace, conciliation, moderation and justice, whereas the moral qualities of their non-Russian opponents leave much to be desired. Further, Nussbaum turned his attention to the writings of Martens
25.
Janus
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In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past and it is conventionally thought that the month of January is named for Janus, but according to ancient Roman farmers almanacs Juno was the tutelary deity of the month. Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war, the doors of his temple were open in time of war, and closed to mark the peace. Janus had no flamen or specialised priest assigned to him, Janus had a ubiquitous presence in religious ceremonies throughout the year, and was ritually invoked at the beginning of each one, regardless of the main deity honored on any particular occasion. The ancient Greeks had no equivalent to Janus, whom the Romans claimed as distinctively their own, three etymologies were proposed by ancient erudites, each of them bearing implications about the nature of the god. The first one is based on the definition of Chaos given by Paul the Deacon, hiantem, hiare, be open, in this etymology the notion of Chaos would define the primordial nature of the god. Another etymology proposed by Nigidius Figulus is related by Macrobius, Ianus would be Apollo and Diana Iana and this explanation has been accepted by A. B. It supports all the assimilations of Janus to the sky, the sun. It supposes a former *Dianus, formed on *dia- < *dy-eð2 from Indo-European root *dey- shine represented in Latin by dies day, Diovis, however the form Dianus postulated by Nigidius is not attested. Modern scholars have conjectured that it derives from the Indo-European root meaning transitional movement, iānus would then be an action name expressing the idea of going, passing, formed on the root *yā- < *y-eð2- theme II of the root *ey- go from which eō, ειμι. Other modern scholars object to an Indo-European etymology either from Dianus or from root *yā-, from Ianus derived ianua, and hence the English word janitor. Almost all of modern explanations were originally formulated by the ancients. The function god of beginnings has been expressed in numerous ancient sources, among them most notably Cicero, Ovid. As a god of motion, Janus looks after passages, causes actions to start, since movement and change are interconnected, he has a double nature, symbolised in his two headed image. He has under his tutelage the stepping in and out of the door of homes, the ianua, which took its name from him and he is also present at the Sororium Tigillum, where he guards the terminus of the ways into Rome from Latium. He has an altar, later a temple near the Porta Carmentalis, where the leading to Veii ended, as well as being present on the Janiculum. The connection of the notions of beginning, movement, transition, in general, Janus is at the origin of time as the guardian of the gates of Heaven, Jupiter himself can move forth and back because of Januss working. In one of his temples, probably that of Forum Holitorium, Janus frequently symbolized change and transitions such as the progress of past to future, from one condition to another, from one vision to another, and young peoples growth to adulthood
26.
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
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Wilhelmina was Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. Wilhelmina was the child of King William III and his second wife Emma of Waldeck. She became heir presumptive to the Dutch throne, after her brother and great uncle had died. She became queen when her died, when she was 10 years old. As she was still a minor, her mother served as regent until Wilhelmina became 18 years old, in 1901, she married Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin with whom she had a daughter Juliana. She reigned for nearly 58 years, longer any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World War I and World War II, the crisis of 1933. Outside the Netherlands she is remembered for her role in World War II. Princess Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, was born on 31 August 1880 in The Hague and she was the only child of King William III and his second wife, Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Her childhood was characterised by a relationship with her parents, especially with her father. King William III had three sons with his first wife, Sophie of Württemberg, when Prince Frederick died a year later in 1881, she became second in line. When Wilhelmina was four, Alexander died and the girl became heir presumptive. King William III died on 23 November 1890, although 10-year-old Wilhelmina became queen of the Netherlands instantly, her mother, Emma, was named regent. In 1895, Queen Wilhelmina visited Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, still has her hair hanging loose. She is slender and graceful, and makes an impression as a very intelligent and she speaks good English and knows how to behave with charming manners. Wilhelmina was enthroned on 6 September 1898, on 7 February 1901 in The Hague, she married Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Nine months later, on 9 November, Wilhelmina suffered a miscarriage and her next pregnancy ended in another miscarriage on 23 July 1906. The birth of Juliana, on 30 April 1909, was met with great relief after eight years of childless marriage, Wilhelmina suffered two further miscarriages on 23 January and 20 October 1912
27.
Architectural design competition
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An architectural design competition is a type of competition in which an organization that intends on constructing a new building invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning design is chosen by an independent panel of design professionals. This procedure is used to generate new ideas for building design, to stimulate public debate, generate publicity for the project. Winning first prize in a competition is not a guarantee that the project will be constructed, the commissioning body often has the right to veto the winning design, and both requirements and finances may change, thwarting the original intention. Architecture competitions have a more than 2, 500-year-old history, the Acropolis in Athens was a result of an architectural competition in 448 B. C. as were several cathedrals in the Middle Ages. During the Renaissance, many initiated by the church have been decided through design competition. Examples are the Spanish Stairs in Rome or in 1419, a competition was held to design the dome of the Florence Cathedral, open competitions were held in the late 18th century in several countries including the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, France and Sweden. In 19th century England and Ireland there have been over 2,500 competitions in five decades, the Institute of British Architects drafted a first set of rules in 1839, and a set of formal regulations in 1872. The German Regulations were introduced in 1867, in the same period in the Netherlands an association for the advancement of architecture started organising conceptual competitions with the aim of stimulating architects creativity. Project competitions or ideas competitions, depending on the intention of building the project or generating new ideas, single-stage or two-stage competitions, dependending on the scale and complexity of the competition. Anonymous or cooperative procedures, anonymity supports greater objectivity during the evaluation, in cooperative procedures, the authors are invited to make in-person presentations to the jury in order to explain their design strategies and allow individual discussion. In France and Germany design competitions are compulsory for all public buildings exceeding a certain cost, most significant among architectural competitions are the ones which are internationally open, attract a large number of design submissions, and the winning design is built. Student competition Student competitions AB Student design competition Andersson E. Bloxham Zettersten, G. und Rönn, M. Architectural Competitions - Histories, stockholm, The Royal Institute of Technology and Rio Kulturkooperativ,2013
28.
French people
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The French are an ethnic group and nation who are identified with the country of France. This connection may be legal, historical, or cultural, modern French society can be considered a melting pot. To be French, according to the first article of the French Constitution, is to be a citizen of France, regardless of origin, race. The debate concerning the integration of this view with the underlying the European Community remains open. A large number of foreigners have traditionally been permitted to live in France, indeed, the country has long valued its openness, tolerance and the quality of services available. Application for French citizenship is often interpreted as a renunciation of previous state allegiance unless a dual citizenship agreement exists between the two countries, the European treaties have formally permitted movement and European citizens enjoy formal rights to employment in the state sector. Seeing itself as a nation with universal values, France has always valued. However, the success of such assimilation has recently called into question. There is increasing dissatisfaction with, and within, growing ethno-cultural enclaves, the 2005 French riots in some troubled and impoverished suburbs were an example of such tensions. However they should not be interpreted as ethnic conflicts but as social conflicts born out of socioeconomic problems endangering proper integration, the name France etymologically derives from the word Francia, the territory of the Franks. The Franks were a Germanic tribe that overran Roman Gaul at the end of the Roman Empire, in the pre-Roman era, all of Gaul was inhabited by a variety of peoples who were known collectively as the Gaulish tribes. Gaul was militarily conquered in 58-51 BCE by the Roman legions under the command of General Julius Caesar, the area then became part of the Roman Empire. Over the next five centuries the two cultures intermingled, creating a hybridized Gallo-Roman culture, the Gaulish vernacular language disappeared step by step to be replaced everywhere by Vulgar Latin, which would later develop under Frankish influence into the French language in the North of France. With the decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, a federation of Germanic peoples entered the picture, the Franks were Germanic pagans who began to settle in northern Gaul as laeti, already during the Roman era. They continued to filter across the Rhine River from present-day Netherlands, at the beginning, they served in the Roman army and reached high commands. Their language is spoken as a kind of Dutch in northern France. Another Germanic people immigrated massively to Alsace, the Alamans, which explains the Alemannic German spoken there and they were competitors of the Franks, thats why it became at the Renaissance time the word for German in French, Allemand. By the early 6th century the Franks, led by the Merovingian king Clovis I and his sons, had consolidated their hold on much of modern-day France, the Vikings eventually intermarried with the local people, converting to Christianity in the process
29.
Architect
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An architect is someone who plans, designs, and reviews the construction of buildings. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, which derives from the Greek, practical, technical, and academic requirements for becoming an architect vary by jurisdiction. The terms architect and architecture are used in the disciplines of landscape architecture, naval architecture. In most jurisdictions, the professional and commercial uses of the terms architect, throughout ancient and medieval history, most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans—such as stone masons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. Until modern times, there was no distinction between architect and engineer. In Europe, the architect and engineer were primarily geographical variations that referred to the same person. It is suggested that various developments in technology and mathematics allowed the development of the gentleman architect. Paper was not used in Europe for drawing until the 15th century, pencils were used more often for drawing by 1600. The availability of both allowed pre-construction drawings to be made by professionals, until the 18th-century, buildings continued to be designed and set out by craftsmen with the exception of high-status projects. In most developed countries, only qualified people with appropriate license, certification, or registration with a relevant body, such licensure usually requires an accredited university degree, successful completion of exams, and a training period. To practice architecture implies the ability to independently of supervision. In many places, independent, non-licensed individuals may perform design services outside the professional restrictions, such design houses, in the architectural profession, technical and environmental knowledge, design and construction management, and an understanding of business are as important as design. However, design is the force throughout the project and beyond. An architect accepts a commission from a client, the commission might involve preparing feasibility reports, building audits, the design of a building or of several buildings, structures, and the spaces among them. The architect participates in developing the requirements the client wants in the building, throughout the project, the architect co-ordinates a design team. Structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers and other specialists, are hired by the client or the architect, the architect hired by a client is responsible for creating a design concept that meets the requirements of that client and provides a facility suitable to the required use. In that, the architect must meet with and question the client to ascertain all the requirements, often the full brief is not entirely clear at the beginning, entailing a degree of risk in the design undertaking. The architect may make proposals to the client which may rework the terms of the brief
30.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
31.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
32.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
33.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
34.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
35.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
36.
Persian carpet
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Carpet weaving is an essential part of Persian culture and art. Within the group of Oriental rugs or Islamic carpets produced by the countries of the rug belt. Persian carpets and rugs of various types were woven in parallel by nomadic tribes, in village and town workshops, as such, they represent different, simultaneous lines of tradition, and reflect the history of Iran and its various peoples. Their patterns and designs have set a tradition for court manufactories which was kept alive during the entire duration of the Persian Empire up to the last royal dynasty of Iran. Town manufactories like those of Tabriz have played an important historical role in reviving the tradition of carpet weaving after periods of decline, Rugs woven by the villages and various tribes of Iran are distinguished by their fine wool, bright and elaborate colours, and specific, traditional patterns. Gabbeh rugs are the type of carpet from this line of tradition. The art and craft of weaving has gone through periods of decline during times of political unrest. It particularly suffered from the introduction of synthetic dyes during the half of the nineteenth century. Carpet weaving still plays a part in the economy of modern Iran. Hand-woven Persian carpets and rugs were regarded as objects of artistic and utilitarian value and prestige from the first time they were mentioned by ancient Greek writers. In 2010, the skills of carpet weaving in Fārs. The beginning of carpet weaving remains unknown, as carpets are subject to use, deterioration, woven rugs probably developed from earlier floor coverings, made of felt, or a technique known as flat weaving. Flat-woven rugs are made by tightly interweaving the warp and weft strands of the weave to produce a surface with no pile. The technique of weaving carpets further developed into a known as loop weaving. Loop weaving is done by pulling the strings over a gauge rod. The rod is then removed, leaving the loops closed, or the loops are cut over the protecting rod. Hand-woven pile rugs are produced by knotting strings of thread individually into the warps, the Pazyryk carpet was excavated in 1949 from the grave of a Scythian nobleman in the Pazyryk Valley of the Altai Mountains in Siberia. Radiocarbon testing indicated that the Pazyryk carpet was woven in the 5th century BC and this carpet is 183 by 200 centimetres and has 36 symmetrical knots per cm²
37.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
38.
Indonesia
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Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a unitary sovereign state and transcontinental country located mainly in Southeast Asia with some territories in Oceania. Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is the worlds largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands. At 1,904,569 square kilometres, Indonesia is the worlds 14th-largest country in terms of area and worlds 7th-largest country in terms of combined sea. It has an population of over 260 million people and is the worlds fourth most populous country. The worlds most populous island, Java, contains more than half of the countrys population, Indonesias republican form of government includes an elected legislature and president. Indonesia has 34 provinces, of which five have Special Administrative status and its capital and countrys most populous city is Jakarta, which is also the most populous city in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the second highest level of biodiversity. The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, tin, copper, agriculture mainly produces rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, medicinal plants, spices and rubber. Indonesias major trading partners are Japan, United States, China, the Indonesian archipelago has been an important region for trade since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Indonesia consists of hundreds of native ethnic and linguistic groups. The largest – and politically dominant – ethnic group are the Javanese, a shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a Muslim-majority population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesias national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, articulates the diversity that shapes the country, Indonesias economy is the worlds 16th largest by nominal GDP and the 8th largest by GDP at PPP, the largest in Southeast Asia, and is considered an emerging market and newly industrialised country. Indonesia has been a member of the United Nations since 1950, Indonesia is a member of the G20 major economies and World Trade Organization. The name Indonesia derives from the Greek name of the Indós, the name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians—and, his preference, in the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia, they preferred Malay Archipelago, the Netherlands East Indies, popularly Indië, the East, and Insulinde
39.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located 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, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
40.
Beatrix of the Netherlands
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Beatrix reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013, after a reign of exactly 33 years. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husband, upon her mothers accession in 1948, she became heir presumptive. Beatrix attended a primary school in Canada during World War II. In 1961, she received her law degree from Leiden University, in 1966, Beatrix married Claus von Amsberg, a German diplomat, with whom she had three children. When her mother abdicated on 30 April 1980, Beatrix succeeded her as queen, on Koninginnedag,30 April 2013, Beatrix abdicated in favour of her eldest son, Willem-Alexander, and resumed the title of princess. At the time of her abdication, Beatrix was the oldest reigning monarch of the Netherlands, Beatrix was born Princess Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld, on 31 January 1938 at the Soestdijk Palace in Baarn, Netherlands. She is the first child of Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, Beatrix was baptized on 12 May 1938 in the Great Church in The Hague. Beatrixs middle names are the first names of her grandmother, the then reigning Queen Wilhelmina. When Beatrix was one old, in 1939, her younger sister Princess Irene was born. World War II broke out in the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, on 13 May, the Dutch Royal Family evacuated to London, United Kingdom. One month later, Beatrix went to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with her mother Juliana and her sister Irene, while her father Bernhard, the family lived at the Stornoway residence. With bodyguards and ladies in waiting, the family summered at Bigwin Inn on Lake of Bays, while on Bigwin Island, the constitution of the Netherlands was stored in the cast iron safe of Bigwin Inns Rotunda building. In order to them with a greater sense of security, culinary chefs. Upon their departure, the musicians of the Bigwin Inn Orchestra assembled dockside, and at every public performance afterward through to the end of World War II. In the years following the shuttering and neglect of the island resort, the second sister of Beatrix, Princess Margriet, was born in Ottawa in 1943. During their exile in Canada, Beatrix attended nursery and Rockcliffe Park Public School, on 5 May 1945, the German troops in the Netherlands surrendered. The family returned to the Netherlands on 2 August 1945, Beatrix went to the progressive primary school De Werkplaats in Bilthoven. Her third sister Princess Christina was born in 1947, in April 1950, Princess Beatrix entered the Incrementum, a part of Baarnsch Lyceum, where, in 1956, she passed her school-graduation examinations in the subjects of arts and classics
41.
Michael Wilford
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Michael Wilford CBE is an English architect from Hartfield, East Sussex. Wilford studied at the Northern Polytechnic School of Architecture, London, from 1955 to 1962, in 1960, he joined the practice of James Stirling and in 1971 together established the Stirling/Wilford partnership. He designed the British Embassy in Berlin, in 1960 Wilford joined the practice which James Stirling created in 1956. The Stirling/Wilford partnership was established in 1971 and continued until James Stirlings death in 1992, from 1993 to 2001 Michael Wilford worked in partnership under the name of Michael Wilford and Partners. In England Michael Wilford now practices under the name of Michael Wilford architects and in Germany has established Wilford Schupp and this is his favourite school of architecture. He has been an examiner at many UK schools of architecture and sits on juries for numerous international architectural competitions. In 2001 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
42.
Thomas Hayton Mawson
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Thomas Hayton Mawson, known as T. H. Mawson, was a British garden designer, landscape architect, and town planner. Mawson was born in Nether Wyresdale, Lancashire, and left school at age 12 and his father, who died in 1877, was a warper in a cotton mill and later started a building business. He married Anna Prentice in 1884 and the Mawsons made their home in Windermere, Westmorland. They had four sons and five daughters and his eldest son, Edward Prentice Mawson, was a successful landscape architect and took over the running of his fathers firm when his father developed Parkinsons disease in 1923. Another son, John Mawson, moved to New Zealand in 1928 as Director of Town Planning for that country. Mawson died at Applegarth, Hest Bank, near Lancaster, Lancashire, aged 72, to make a living, he worked first in the building trade in Lancaster, then at a London nursery where he gained experience in landscape gardening. In the 1880s he moved north, where he and two brothers started the Lakeland Nursery in Windermere. The firm became successful for him to be able to turn his attention to garden design. Mawsons first commission was a property, Graythwaite Hall, and his work there showed his hallmark blend of architecture. He went on to design other gardens in Cumbria such as Langdale Chase, Holehird, Brockhole, in 1891 Mawson was commissioned to design and construct Belle Vue Park in Newport, Monmouthshire, Mawsons first win in an open competition. His design was, in fact, designed for the neighbouring field, the mistake was not realised until the first site visit, after the contract had been awarded. Between 1894 and 1909 Mawson was commissioned to design and construct Dyffryn Gardens near Cardiff, the Rushton Hall estate in Northamptonshire has early 20th century formal terraced gardens designed by Mawson between 1905–1909 and implemented by his brother Robert. In 1908 Mawson was enlisted to design the public park in the new town of Barrow-in-Furness. Later Mawson designed gardens in parts of Britain, and others in Europe. In London he designed gardens at The Hill, in Hampstead for Lord Leverhulme, the impressive 800 ft long pergola is now open to the public as part of the West Heath. He designed Rivington Gardens and Lever Park in Lancashire also for Lord Leverhulme, padiham Memorial Park was another commission in Lancashire. Mawson also designed the gardens at Wood Hall near Cockermouth, Cumbria, much of this garden still survives today. From 1910 to 1924 he lectured frequently at the school of civic design and he also contributed articles on garden design to The Studio magazine and its annual The Studio Year Book of Decorative Art
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Eternal flame
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An eternal flame is a flame, lamp or torch that burns continuously for an indefinite period. In ancient times, human-tended eternal flames were fueled by wood or olive oil, the eternal fire is a long-standing tradition in many cultures and religions. In ancient Iran the atar was tended by a dedicated priest and represented the concept of divine sparks or Amesha Spenta, modern Judaism continues a similar tradition by having a sanctuary lamp, the ner tamid, always lit above the ark in the synagogue. After World War II, such flames gained further meaning, as a reminder of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, the Cherokee Nation maintained a fire at the seat of government until ousted by the Indian Removal Act in 1830. At that time, embers from the last great council fire were carried west to the new home in the Oklahoma Territory. In China, it has at times been common to establish an eternally lit lamp as an aspect of ancestor veneration. The eternal flame commemorating American President John F. Kennedy after his assassination in 1963 is believed to be the first such memorial to honor a single, known individual. In the wake of the Kennedy memorial, eternal flames have been used throughout the world to honor persons of national or international significance. One of the three Great Flames of the Achaemenid Empire was extinguished during the reign of Alexander the Great to honour the death of his close friend Hephaestion in 324 BC. An eternal flame was burning in the inner hearth of the Temple of Delphic Apollo at Delphi in Greece until Delphi was sacked by the Roman general Sulla in 87 BC. Many churches, along with Jewish synagogues, feature an eternal flame on or hung above their altars or Torah arks, when a church is founded, the flame is passed from another church and the candles are regularly replaced to keep the original flame burning. The Sacred fire of Vesta in Ancient Rome, which burned within the Temple of Vesta on the Roman Forum, was extinguished in 394 AD, the eternal flame near the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn in Estonia was extinguished after the country gained independence from the USSR in 1991. An eternal flame was part of the East German Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism at Neue Wache in East Berlin and it was removed after the 1990 German reunification. In 1993, the space was redesigned and rededicated as the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War, llama de la Libertad lit by Augusto Pinochet in 1975 in to commemorate the 1973 Chilean coup detat against Salvador Allende. A 23-metre high eternal flame monument named Večna vatra was erected in Belgrade in 2000, the flame was extinguished months later. Franjo Tuđman Park, in front of city market and swimming pool, in memory of fallen in the Croatian War of Independence Helsinki. Originally erected in honour of the Finnish seamen and seafaring and it has later also become a symbol of those who have perished at the sea, the Baltic Sea in particular. A minor controversy arose when the flame was extinguished, to conserve gas
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Randal Cremer
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Sir William Randal Cremer usually known by his middle name Randal, was an English Liberal Member of Parliament, a pacifist, and a leading advocate for international arbitration. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1903 for his work with the arbitration movement. Cremer was born to a family in the southern English town of Fareham. His father was a coachman but abandoned the family soon after Randal was born and his mother raised Cremer along with his two sisters, ensuring Randal received an education at a local Methodist school. Randal augmented his knowledge by attending free lectures, the young Cremer was apprenticed as a builder, soon developing into a skilled carpenter. Moving to London 1852, Cremer became active as a union organiser, Cremer was elected as the Secretary of the International Workingmens Association in 1865, but resigned two years later in 1867 as he felt the organisation was becoming too radical. While heavily involved in campaigning for causes, and respected by Marx. From as early as his first unsuccessful run for Parliament in 1868 and he was elected as Liberal Member of Parliament for Haggerston in the Shoreditch district of Hackney from 1885 to 1895, and from 1900 until his death, from pneumonia in 1908. Using his platform as an MP, Cremer cultivated allies on both continental Europe and across the Atlantic, including Frédéric Passy, William Jennings Bryan and Andrew Carnegie. In recognition of his work in the movement, Cremer won the Nobel Peace Prize. He also was named a Chevalier of the French Légion dhonneur, Randal Cremer Primary School, in Haggerston, is named in his honour. Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Randal Cremer
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Rui Barbosa
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Ruy Barbosa de Oliveira was a Brazilian polymath, diplomat, writer, jurist, and politician. Born in Salvador, Bahia, he was a representative, senator, Minister of Finance. For his distinguished participation in the 2nd Hague Conference, defending the principle of equality among nations and he ran unsuccessfully for the Presidency of Brazil in 1910,1914 and in 1919. Ruy Barbosa gave his first public speech for the abolition of slavery when he was 19, for the rest of his life he remained an uncompromising defender of civil liberties. Slavery in Brazil was finally abolished by the Lei Áurea in 1888, part of Barbosas legacy to history is that he authorised, as minister of finance on 14 December 1890, the destruction of most government records relating to slavery. The avowed reason for destruction, which took several years to be enacted and was followed by his successors, was to erase the stain of slavery on Brazilian history. However, historians agree that Barbosa aimed to prevent any possible indemnization of the former slave-owners for this liberation. Indeed, eleven days after the abolition of slavery, a law project was deposed at the Chamber, Barbosas liberal ideas were influential in drafting of the first republican constitution. He was a supporter of fiat money, as opposed to a gold standard, during his term as finance secretary, he implemented far-reaching reforms of Brazils financial regime, instituting a vigorously expansionist monetary policy. The result was chaos and instability, the so-called fiat experiment resulted in the bubble of encilhamento, due to his controversial role during it, in the following administration of Floriano Peixoto, he was forced into exile until Florianos term ended. Years later, after his return he was elected as a Senator and he headed the Brazilian delegation to the 2nd Hague Conference and was brilliant in its deliberations. As candidate of the Civilian Party in the election of 1910. He was not successful and lost to Marshal Hermes da Fonseca and he ran again in the elections of 1914 and 1919, both times losing to the government candidate. During World War I, he played a key role among those who advocated the Allied cause, Barbosa died in Petrópolis, near Rio de Janeiro, in 1923. Turner, CW, Ruy Barbosa, Brazilian crusader for the freedoms, New York, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 1-419-10424-1. Mendes Silva, Professor Raul, Haia, Ruy Barbosa e a delegação brasileira à segunda conferência de paz, Missões de Paz, Brazil, fundação Casa de Ruy Barbosa, BR, Brazilian government. Works by or about Rui Barbosa at Internet Archive
46.
Nelson Mandela
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Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the countrys first black head of state and the first elected in a representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism, ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress party from 1991 to 1997. A Xhosa, Mandela was born in Mvezo to the Thembu royal family and he studied law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of the Witwatersrand before working as a lawyer in Johannesburg. There he became involved in anti-colonial and African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943, after the National Partys white-only government established apartheid—a system of racial segregation that privileged whites—he and the ANC committed themselves to its overthrow. Mandela was appointed President of the ANCs Transvaal branch, rising to prominence for his involvement in the 1952 Defiance Campaign and he was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and was unsuccessfully prosecuted in the 1956 Treason Trial. Influenced by Marxism, he joined the banned South African Communist Party. Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the SACP he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961, in 1962, he was arrested for conspiring to overthrow the state and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial. Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Island, amid growing domestic and international pressure, and with fears of a racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990. Mandela and de Klerk negotiated an end to apartheid and organised the 1994 multiracial general election in which Mandela led the ANC to victory, internationally, he acted as mediator in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial and served as Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999. He declined a presidential term and in 1999 was succeeded by his deputy. Mandela became a statesman and focused on combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the charitable Nelson Mandela Foundation. Mandela was a figure for much of his life. Widely regarded as an icon of democracy and social justice, he received more than 250 honours—including the Nobel Peace Prize—and became the subject of a cult of personality. He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba. Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo in Umtata, given the forename Rolihlahla, a Xhosa term colloquially meaning troublemaker, in later years he became known by his clan name, Madiba. His patrilineal great-grandfather, Ngubengcuka, was king of the Thembu people in the Transkeian Territories of South Africas modern Eastern Cape province, one of Ngubengcukas sons, named Mandela, was Nelsons grandfather and the source of his surname. In 1926, Gadla was also sacked for corruption, but Nelson was told that his father had lost his job for standing up to the magistrates unreasonable demands
