1.
Geneva
–
Geneva is the second most populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic, the municipality has a population of 198,072, and the canton has 484,736 residents. In 2014, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France, within Swiss territory, the commuter area named Métropole lémanique contains a population of 1.25 million. This area is essentially spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, Geneva is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world. It is also the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, Geneva was ranked as the worlds ninth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, ahead of Frankfurt, and third in Europe behind London and Zürich. A2009 survey by Mercer found that Geneva has the third-highest quality of life of any city in the world, the city has been referred to as the worlds most compact metropolis and the Peace Capital. In 2009 and 2011, Geneva was ranked as, respectively, the city was mentioned in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava, probably from a Celtic toponym *genawa- from the stem *genu-, in the sense of a bending river or estuary. The medieval county of Geneva in Middle Latin was known as pagus major Genevensis or Comitatus Genevensis, the name takes various forms in modern languages, Geneva /dʒᵻˈniːvə/ in English, French, Genève, German, Genf, Italian, Ginevra, and Romansh, Genevra. The city in origin shares its name, *genawa estuary, with the Italian port city of Genoa, Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. It became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, and acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the bishopric of Vienne in the 4th. In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, around this time the House of Savoy came to dominate the city. In the 15th century, a republican government emerged with the creation of the Grand Council. In 1541, with Protestantism in the ascendancy, John Calvin, by the 18th century, however, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. France also tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk, in 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, in 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of international organizations. Geneva is located at 46°12 North, 6°09 East, at the end of Lake Geneva. It is surrounded by two chains, the Alps and the Jura
Geneva
–
Top left:
Palace of Nations, Middle left:
ATLAS experiment at
CERN, Right:
Jet d'Eau, Bottom: View over Geneva and the
lake.
Geneva
–
L'Escalade, the failed surprise-attack (12 December 1602) made by troops sent by
Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, to take Geneva
Geneva
–
Geneva seen from SPOT Satellite
Geneva
–
The Geneva area seen from the Salève in France. The Jura mountains can be seen on the horizon.
2.
List of specialized agencies of the United Nations
–
At present the UN has in total 15 specialized agencies that carry out various functions on behalf of the UN. The specialized agencies are listed below, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements. FAOs mandate is to raise levels of nutrition, improve productivity, better the lives of rural populations. FAO is the largest of UN agencies and its headquarters is in Rome, the International Civil Aviation Organization was founded in 1947. It codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of air transport to ensure safe. Its headquarters are located in the Quartier international de Montréal of Montreal and it also solves disputes between two countries. IFAD is dedicated to eradicating poverty in developing countries. Its headquarters are in Rome, Italy, the International Labour Organization deals with labour issues. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, founded in 1919, it was formed through the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles and was initially an agency of the League of Nations. It became a member of the UN system after the demise of the League and its Constitution, as amended to date, includes the Declaration of Philadelphia on the aims and purposes of the Organization. Its secretariat is known as the International Labor Office, however the IMO did not enter into full force until 1958. Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, the IMO promotes cooperation among government, IMO is governed by an Assembly of members and is financially administered by a Council of members elected from the Assembly. The work of IMO is conducted through five committees and these are supported by technical sub-committees, Member organizations of the UN organizational family may observe the proceedings of the IMO. Observer status may be granted to qualified non-governmental organizations, the IMO is supported by a permanent secretariat of employees who are representative of its members. International Monetary Fund is sometimes considered to be a specialized agency and it is part of the United Nations system and has a formal relationship agreement with the UN, but retains its independence. The IMF provides monetary cooperation and financial stability and acts as a forum for advice, negotiation and it is headquartered in Washington, D. C. The International Telecommunication Union was established to standardize and regulate international radio and it was founded as the International Telegraph Union in Paris on 17 May 1865
List of specialized agencies of the United Nations
–
ICAO flag.
3.
Switzerland
–
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’
Switzerland
–
Founded in 44 BC by
Lucius Munatius Plancus,
Augusta Raurica was the first Roman settlement on the Rhine and is now among the most important archaeological sites in Switzerland.
Switzerland
–
Flag
Switzerland
–
The 1291 Bundesbrief (Federal charter)
Switzerland
–
The Old Swiss Confederacy from 1291 (dark green) to the sixteenth century (light green) and its associates (blue). In the other colors are shown the subject territories.
4.
Francis Gurry
–
Francis Gurry is an Australian national and the fourth and current Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization. He is also Secretary-General of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, Gurry previously served as a Deputy Director General of WIPO from 2003 to 2008. Gurry graduated in 1974 from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Laws and was admitted as a barrister and he worked in Melbourne as an articled clerk and solicitor at Arthur Robinson & Co. and earned a Master of Laws degree from the University of Melbourne in 1976. Before joining WIPO, Gurry was a lecturer in law at the University of Melbourne and, for one year. He was also a professor of law at the University of Dijon. Francis Gurry joined the World Intellectual Property Organization in 1985 as a consultant and senior officer in the Regional Bureau for Asia. Between 1988 and 1999, he held positions in different sectors of WIPO, including in the Industrial Property Law Section, the Office of the Director General, and the Legal Counsel Office. Francis Gurry was nominated as a candidate for the position of Director General of WIPO in February 2008, on 22 September 2008, he was appointed Director General by the WIPO General Assembly. His six-year term started on 1 October 2008 and ran to the end of September 2014, following his nomination by the WIPO Coordination Committee, the WIPO General Assembly on 8 May 2014 appointed Gurry for a second 6-year term running through September 2020. An investigation was conducted by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services,17 WIPO member states have asked the WIPO Coordination Committee to review the report so the issues can be resolved. In October 2016, all investigations against Francis Gurry were closed,1, pp. 13–20 The Dispute Resolution Services of the World Intellectual Property Organization, Journal of International Economic Law, vol. 2, pp.385 –398 The Evolution of Technology and Markets and the Management of Intellectual Property Rights, in Frederick M
Francis Gurry
–
Francis Gurry
5.
Headquarters
–
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility for managing all business activities, in the UK, the term head office is most commonly used for the HQs of large corporations. The term is also used regarding military organizations, a headquarters is the entity at the top of a corporation that takes full responsibility for the overall success of the corporation, and ensures corporate governance. Many companies have an office at a different address to their corporate office. A headquarters normally includes the leader of business unit and his or her staff as well as all functions to manage the business unit, the head of the business unit is responsible for overall result of the business unit. Military headquarters take many forms depending on the size and nature of the unit or formation they command, typically, they are split into the forward, main and rear components, both within NATO nations, and those following the organization and doctrine of the former Soviet Union. The forward or tactical HQs is a group of staff. The main HQs is less mobile and is involved in both the planning and execution of operations, there are a number of staff assembled here from various staff branches to advise the commander, and to control the various aspects of planning and the conduct of discrete operations. A main HQ for a large formation will have a chief of staff who coordinates the staff effort, the rear or logistic HQs is some distance from the battle or front line in conventional operations. The headquarters of the Catholic Church is Vatican City, the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church is in Danilov Monastery, Moscow. The World Council of Churches, including Orthodox Churches, has its headquarters in Geneva, the headquarters of Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is located in Istanbul, Turkey. The headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Anglican Communion Office is in London. In Japanese budō martial arts such as karate, judo, aikido, kendo, there is usually a headquarters for each organization or region. The Japanese word honbu is generally used for that, also outside Japan, sometimes they refer to this headquarters as honbu dojo in which dojo is a facility provided for practicing discipline, the training ground. Sometimes honbu is written as hombu, the way it is pronounced, but according to the Hepburn transcription, weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army Janes, London,516 pp. Wanner, Herbert Global and regional corporate headquarters in, Kählin, Christian, H. Switzerland Business & Investment Handbook, Orell Füssli and Wiley, Wanner, Herbert, LeClef, Xavier, & Shimizu, Hiroshi Global Headquarters on the Move, From Administrators to Facilitators Prims Second Semester 2004, Arthur D. Little
Headquarters
–
The
United Nations Headquarters in
New York City.
Headquarters
–
KBR Tower, the headquarters of
KBR and a part of
Cullen Center, in
Downtown Houston
Headquarters
–
Randall's Food Markets headquarters in
Westchase,
Houston; Randall's is a subsidiary of
Safeway Inc.
6.
United Nations
–
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
United Nations
–
1943 sketch by Franklin Roosevelt of the United Nations' original three branches: The
Four Policemen, an executive branch, and an international assembly of forty UN member states.
United Nations
–
Flag
United Nations
–
The
Chilean delegation signing the
UN Charter in San Francisco, 1945
United Nations
–
Dag Hammarskjöld was a particularly active Secretary-General from 1953 until his death in 1961.
7.
Intellectual property
–
Intellectual property refers to creations of the intellect for which a monopoly is assigned to designated owners by law. Intellectual property rights are the protections granted to the creators of IP, and include trademarks, copyright, patents, industrial design rights, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. Artistic works including music and literature, as well as discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols, the Statute of Monopolies and the British Statute of Anne are seen as the origins of patent law and copyright respectively, firmly establishing the concept of intellectual property. The first known use of the intellectual property dates to 1769. The first clear example of modern usage goes back as early as 1808, the German equivalent was used with the founding of the North German Confederation whose constitution granted legislative power over the protection of intellectual property to the confederation. According to Lemley, it was only at point that the term really began to be used in the United States. The history of patents does not begin with inventions, but rather with royal grants by Queen Elizabeth I for monopoly privileges, the evolution of patents from royal prerogative to common-law doctrine. The term can be used in an October 1845 Massachusetts Circuit Court ruling in the patent case Davoll et al. v. Brown. The statement that discoveries are. property goes back earlier, in Europe, French author A. Nion mentioned propriété intellectuelle in his Droits civils des auteurs, artistes et inventeurs, published in 1846. Until recently, the purpose of property law was to give as little protection as possible in order to encourage innovation. Historically, therefore, they were granted only when they were necessary to encourage invention, limited in time, the concepts origins can potentially be traced back further. In 500 BCE, the government of the Greek state of Sybaris offered one years patent to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury. Intellectual property rights include patents, copyright, industrial design rights, trademarks, plant variety rights, trade dress, geographical indications, a copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Copyright may apply to a range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms. Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed, an industrial design right protects the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern, an industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft. Plant breeders rights or plant variety rights are the rights to use a new variety of a plant. The variety must amongst others be novel and distinct and for registration the evaluation of propagating material of the variety is examined, a trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression which distinguishes products or services of a particular trader from the similar products or services of other traders
Intellectual property
–
The
Statute of Anne came into force in 1710
Intellectual property
–
Demonstration in
Sweden in support of
file sharing, 2006.
Intellectual property
–
"Copying is not theft!" badge with a character resembling
Mickey Mouse in reference to the in popular culture rationale behind the
Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998
Intellectual property
–
RIAA representative
Hilary Rosen testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the future of digital music (July 11, 2000)
8.
Treaty
–
A treaty is an agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention, pact, or exchange of letters, regardless of terminology, all of these forms of agreements are, under international law, equally considered treaties and the rules are the same. A treaty is an official, express written agreement that states use to bind themselves. Since the late 19th century, most treaties have followed a consistent format. A treaty typically begins with a preamble describing the parties and their joint objectives in executing the treaty. Modern preambles are sometimes structured as a very long sentence formatted into multiple paragraphs for readability. The end of the preamble and the start of the agreement is often signaled by the words have agreed as follows. After the preamble comes numbered articles, which contain the substance of the actual agreement. Each article heading usually encompasses a paragraph, a long treaty may further group articles under chapter headings. The date is written in its most formal, longest possible form. For example, the Charter of the United Nations was DONE at the city of San Francisco the twenty-sixth day of June, one nine hundred. If the treaty is executed in multiple copies in different languages, that fact is always noted, the signatures of the parties representatives follow at the very end. Bilateral treaties are concluded between two states or entities, each of these treaties has seventeen parties. These however are still bilateral, not multilateral, treaties, the parties are divided into two groups, the Swiss and the EU and its member states. The treaty establishes rights and obligations between the Swiss and the EU and the member states severally—it does not establish any rights and obligations amongst the EU, a multilateral treaty is concluded among several countries. The agreement establishes rights and obligations between each party and every other party, Treaties of mutual guarantee are international compacts, e. g. the Treaty of Locarno which guarantees each signatory against attack from another. Reservations are essentially caveats to an acceptance of a treaty. Reservations are unilateral statements purporting to exclude or to modify the legal obligation and these must be included at the time of signing or ratification, i. e. a party cannot add a reservation after it has already joined a treaty
Treaty
–
The first two pages of the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, in (left to right) German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Ottoman Turkish and Russian
9.
Member states of the United Nations
–
The United Nations member states are the 193 sovereign states that are members of the United Nations and have equal representation in the UN General Assembly. The UN is the worlds largest intergovernmental organization, ahead of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the admission of any such state to membership in the United Nations will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. A recommendation for admission from the Security Council requires affirmative votes from at least nine of the fifteen members. The Security Councils recommendation must then be approved in the General Assembly by a majority vote. In principle, only states can become UN members. Although five members were not sovereign when they joined the UN and this is because the UN does not consider them to possess sovereignty, mainly due to the lack of international recognition or due to opposition from one of the permanent members. Observers are generally intergovernmental organizations and international organizations and entities whose statehood or sovereignty is not precisely defined, the other two original members, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, had been dissolved and their memberships in the UN not continued from 1992 by any one successor state. India was under British colonial rule, until gaining independence in 1947. The Philippines was a commonwealth with the United States, until gaining independence in 1946. New Zealand, while de facto sovereign at that time, only gained full capacity to enter into relations with states in 1947 when it passed the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act. This occurred 16 years after the British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster Act in 1931 that recognised New Zealands autonomy, if judged by the Montevideo Convention criteria, New Zealand did not achieve full de jure statehood until 1947. The current members and their dates of admission are listed below with their official designations used by the United Nations, the member states can be sorted by their official designations and dates of admission by clicking on the buttons in the header of the columns. See related sections on former members by clicking on the links in the column See also, original members are listed with blue background. Both sides rejected compromise proposals to both states to participate in the UN, based on the One-China policy. By the 1970s, a shift had occurred in diplomatic circles. This effectively transferred the seat of China in the UN, including its permanent seat on the Security Council, from the ROC to the PRC, from the United Nations perspective the Republic of China is not a former member. No UN member was expelled in 1971, rather, the credentials of one Chinese delegation were rejected and the credentials of another Chinese delegation were accepted. In addition to losing its seat in the UN, the UN Secretary-General concluded from the resolution that the General Assembly considered Taiwan to be a province of China
Member states of the United Nations
–
Flags of the member states of the United Nations, in front of the
Palace of Nations (
Geneva,
Switzerland). Since 2015, the flags of the two
non-member observer states are raised alongside those of the 193 member states.
Member states of the United Nations
–
Map of the United Nations (UN) member states, with their territories (including
dependent territories) recognized by the UN in blue
Member states of the United Nations
–
The presidency of
Ma Ying-jeou saw the first participation of the
Republic of China on a United Nations body in almost 40 years.
Member states of the United Nations
–
Egyptian president
Gamal Abdel Nasser (seated right) and Syrian president
Shukri al-Quwatli sign the accord to form the
United Arab Republic in 1958. The short-lived political union briefly represented both states and was used as the name of
Egypt following
Syria 's withdrawal in 1961.
10.
Cook Islands
–
The Cook Islands is a self-governing island country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. It comprises 15 islands whose total area is 240 square kilometres. The Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone, however, covers 1,800,000 square kilometres of ocean, the Cook Islands defence and foreign affairs are the responsibility of New Zealand, but they are exercised in consultation with the Cook Islands. In recent times, the Cook Islands have adopted an independent foreign policy. Although Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand, they have the status of Cook Islands nationals, the Cook Islands main population centres are on the island of Rarotonga, where there is an international airport. There is a population of Cook Islanders in New Zealand. In the 2006 census,58,008 self-identified as being of ethnic Cook Islands Māori descent, the Cook Islands are in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand, between French Polynesia and American Samoa. There are 15 major islands spread over 2,200,000 km2 of ocean, the islands were formed by volcanic activity, the northern group is older and consists of six atolls, which are sunken volcanoes topped by coral growth. The climate is moderate to tropical, palmerston Island sometimes grouped with the Northern Group. Manuae Winslow Reef The Cook Islands were first settled in the 6th century by Polynesian people who migrated from Tahiti, in 1813 John Williams, a missionary on the Endeavour made the first recorded sighting of Rarotonga. The first recorded landing on Rarotonga by Europeans was in 1814 by the Cumberland, the islands saw no more Europeans until missionaries arrived from England in 1821. Christianity quickly took hold in the culture and many continue to be Christian believers today. The Cook Islands became a British protectorate in 1888, due largely to community fears that France might occupy the territory as it had Tahiti, on 6 September 1900, the leading islanders presented a petition asking that the islands should be annexed as British territory. These instruments did not include Aitutaki and it appears that, though the inhabitants regarded themselves as British subjects, the Crowns title was uncertain, and the island was formally annexed by Proclamation dated 9 October 1900. The islands were included within the boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand in 1901 by Order in Council under the Colonial Boundaries Act,1895 of the United Kingdom. The boundary change became effective on 11 June 1901 and the Cook Islands have had a relationship with New Zealand ever since. When the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948 came into effect on 1 January 1949, the country remained a New Zealand dependent territory until 1965, when the New Zealand Government decided to offer self-governing status to its colony. In that year, Albert Henry of the Cook Islands Party was elected as the first Premier, Henry led the country until he was accused of vote-rigging
Cook Islands
–
Tapuaetai (One Foot Island) in the southern part of
Aitutaki Atoll
Cook Islands
–
Flag
Cook Islands
–
Beach on
Rarotonga
Cook Islands
–
Governor-General
Lord Ranfurly reading the annexation proclamation to
Queen Makea
11.
Holy See
–
The Holy See, also referred to as the See of Rome, is the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, the episcopal see of the Pope, and an independent sovereign entity. It serves as the point of reference for the Catholic Church everywhere. Today, it is responsible for the governance of all Catholics, organised in their Particular Churches, Patriarchates, as an independent sovereign entity, holding the Vatican City enclave in Rome as sovereign territory, it maintains diplomatic relations with other states. Diplomatically, the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole church and it is also recognised by other subjects of international law as a sovereign entity, headed by the Pope, with which diplomatic relations can be maintained. The creation of the Vatican City state was meant to ensure the diplomatic, in Greek, the adjective holy or sacred is constantly applied to all such sees as a matter of course. The word see comes from the Latin word sedes, meaning seat, while Saint Peters basilica in Vatican City is perhaps the church most associated with the Papacy, the actual cathedral of the Holy See is the church of Saint John Lateran within the city of Rome. The Pope governs the Catholic Church through the Roman Curia, the Secretariat of State, under the Cardinal Secretary of State, directs and coordinates the Curia. The incumbent, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, is the Sees equivalent of a prime minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State, acts as the Holy Sees minister of foreign affairs. Parolin was named in his role by Pope Francis On 31 August 2013, mamberti was named in his role by Pope Benedict XVI in September 2006. The Secretariat of State is the body of the Curia that is situated within Vatican City. The others are in buildings in different parts of Rome that have rights similar to those of embassies. The Roman Rota handles normal judicial appeals, the most numerous being those that concern alleged nullity of marriage and it also oversees the work of other ecclesiastical tribunals at all levels. The most important of these is the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, the Prefecture of the Papal Household is responsible for the organization of the papal household, audiences, and ceremonies. The Holy See does not dissolve upon a Popes death or resignation and it instead operates under a different set of laws sede vacante. The government of the See, and therefore of the Catholic Church, canon law prohibits the College and the Camerlengo from introducing any innovations or novelties in the government of the Church during this period. In 2001, the Holy See had a revenue of 422.098 billion Italian lire, the Guardian newspaper described Mennini and his role in the following manner. Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the popes merchant banker, Mennini heads a special unit inside the Vatican called the extraordinary division of APSA – Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica – which handles the patrimony of the Holy See. The Holy See has been recognized, both in practice and in the writing of modern legal scholars, as a subject of public international law, with rights
Holy See
–
The
papal throne (
cathedra), in the apse of
Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, symbolises the Holy See.
12.
Niue
–
Niue is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean,2,400 kilometres northeast of New Zealand, and east of Tonga, south of Samoa and west of the Cook Islands. Its land area is 260 square kilometres and its population, predominantly Polynesian, is around 1,612 as of November 2016 and they commonly refer to the island as The Rock, a reference to the traditional name Rock of Polynesia. Niue, whose capital is the village of Alofi, is a state in free association with New Zealand. Niueans are citizens of New Zealand, and Queen Elizabeth II is head of state in her capacity as Queen of New Zealand, between 90–95% of Niuean people live in New Zealand, along with about 70% of the speakers of the Niuean language. A bilingual country, over 30% speak both Niuean and English, though the percentage of monolingual English-speaking people is only 11%, while 46% are monolingual Niuean speakers, Rugby is the most played sport in Niue. In October 2016, Niue officially declared that all its debt was paid off. Niue is not a member of the United Nations, but UN organisations have accepted its status as a state as equivalent to independence for the purposes of international law. As such, Niue is a member of some UN specialised agencies, and is invited, alongside the other non-UN member state. Niue is subdivided into 14 villages, each village has a village council that elects its chairman. The villages are at the same electoral districts. Each village sends an assemblyman to the Parliament of Niue, in 2003, Niue became the first country in the world to offer free wireless internet to all its inhabitants. Niue Island Organic Farmers Association is currently paving way to an MEA committed to making Niue the worlds first fully organic nation, a leader in green growth, Niue is also transitioning to solar power, with help from the European Union. In 2015, Niue started providing phone landlines to all of its inhabitants, in 2008, Niue became the first country in the world where laptops are provided to all its school students. A highly democratic nation, Niueans enjoy high freedom, with elections every 3 years, there are no political parties in Niue, all are independents. The last political party, Niue Peoples Party, won once, in January 2004, Niue was hit by Cyclone Heta, which caused extensive damage to the entire island, including wiping out most of the south of the capital, Alofi. The disaster set the island back about two years from its planned timeline to implement the Niue Integrated Strategic Plan, since national efforts concentrated on recovery, in 2008, Niue had yet to fully recover. Niue is one of the worlds largest coral islands, the terrain consists of steep limestone cliffs along the coast with a central plateau rising to about 60 metres above sea level. A coral reef surrounds the island, with the only break in the reef being in the central western coast, close to the capital
Niue
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Interior of church building in
Alofi, 1896. Photo by
Thomas Andrew (1855–1939).
Niue
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Flag
Niue
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Coral chasm in Niue
Niue
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Niue's coastline
13.
Marshall Islands
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The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country located near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the International Date Line. Geographically, the country is part of the island group of Micronesia. The countrys population of 53,158 people is spread out over 29 coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The islands share maritime boundaries with the Federated States of Micronesia to the west, Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the south-east, about 27,797 of the islanders live on Majuro, which contains the capital. Micronesian colonists gradually settled the Marshall Islands during the 2nd millennium BC, Islands in the archipelago were first explored by Europeans in the 1520s, with Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar sighting an atoll in August 1526. Other expeditions by Spanish and English ships followed, the islands derive their name from British explorer John Marshall, who visited in 1788. The islands were known by the inhabitants as jolet jen Anij. The European powers recognized Spanish sovereignty over the islands in 1874 and they had been part of the Spanish East Indies formally since 1528. Later, Spain sold the islands to the German Empire in 1884, in World War I the Empire of Japan occupied the Marshall Islands, which in 1919 the League of Nations combined with other former German territories to form the South Pacific Mandate. In World War II, the United States conquered the islands in the Gilbert, along with other Pacific Islands, the Marshall Islands were then consolidated into the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands governed by the US. Self-government was achieved in 1979, and full sovereignty in 1986, Marshall Islands has been a United Nations member state since 1991. The country uses the United States dollar as its currency, the majority of the citizens of the Marshall Islands are of Marshallese descent, though there are small numbers of immigrants from the United States, China, Philippines, and other Pacific islands. The two official languages are Marshallese, which is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, and English, micronesians settled the Marshall Islands in the 2nd millennium BC, but there are no historical or oral records of that period. Over time, the Marshall Island people learned to navigate over long distances by canoe using traditional stick charts. Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar was the first European to see the islands in 1526, commanding the ship Santa Maria de la Victoria, on August 21, he sighted an island at 14°N that he named San Bartolome. On September 21,1529, Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón commanded the Spanish ship Florida and he stood off a group of islands from which local inhabitants hurled stones at his ship. These islands, which he named Los Pintados, may have been Ujelang, on October 1, he found another group of islands where he went ashore for eight days, exchanged gifts with the local inhabitants and took on water. These islands, which he named Los Jardines, may have been Enewetak or Bikini Atoll
Marshall Islands
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Marshall Islanders sailing in traditional costume, circa 1899-1900.
Marshall Islands
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Flag
Marshall Islands
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US troops inspecting an enemy bunker,
Kwajalein Atoll. 1944.
Marshall Islands
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Shipping Lane Patrol Kwajalein Island (Marshall Islands-April 1945)
14.
Federated States of Micronesia
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Together, the states comprise around 607 islands that cover a longitudinal distance of almost 2,700 km just north of the equator. While the FSMs total land area is small, it occupies more than 2,600,000 km2 of the Pacific Ocean. The capital is Palikir, located on Pohnpei Island, while the largest city is Weno, each of its four states is centered on one or more main high islands, and all but Kosrae include numerous outlying atolls. The Federated States of Micronesia is spread across part of the Caroline Islands in the region of Micronesia. The term Micronesia may refer to the Federated States or to the region as a whole, the FSM was formerly a part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a United Nations Trust Territory under U. S. Other neighboring island entities, and also members of the TTPI, formulated their own constitutional governments and became the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The FSM has a seat in the United Nations, the ancestors of the Micronesians settled over four thousand years ago. A decentralized chieftain-based system eventually evolved into a centralized economic. Nan Madol, consisting of a series of artificial islands linked by a network of canals, is often called the Venice of the Pacific. European explorers—first the Portuguese in search of the Spice Islands and then the Spanish—reached the Carolines in the sixteenth century, the Spanish incorporated the archipelago to the Spanish East Indies and in the 19th century established a number of outposts and missions. In 1887, they founded the town of Santiago de la Ascension in what today is Kolonia on the island of Pohnpei, following defeat in the Spanish–American War, the Spanish sold the archipelago to Germany in 1899 under the German–Spanish Treaty of 1899. Germany incorporated it into German New Guinea, during World War I, it was captured by Japan. Following the war, the League of Nations awarded a mandate for Japan to administer the islands as part of the South Pacific Mandate, during World War II, a significant portion of the Japanese fleet was based in Truk Lagoon. In February 1944, Operation Hailstone, one of the most important naval battles of the war, took place at Truk, in which many Japanese support vessels and aircraft were destroyed. On May 10,1979, four of the Trust Territory districts ratified a new constitution to become the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands chose not to participate. The FSM signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States, independence was formally concluded under international law in 1990, when the United Nations officially ended the Trusteeship status pursuant to Security Council Resolution 683. The Compact was renewed in 2004, the Federated States of Micronesia is governed by the 1979 constitution, which guarantees fundamental human rights and establishes a separation of governmental powers. The unicameral Congress has fourteen members elected by popular vote, four senators—one from each state—serve four-year terms, the remaining ten senators represent single-member districts based on population, and serve two-year terms
Federated States of Micronesia
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Map of the Federated States of Micronesia.
Federated States of Micronesia
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Flag
Federated States of Micronesia
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View of Kolonia Town from Sokehs Ridge in
Pohnpei.
Federated States of Micronesia
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A large (approximately 2.4 m or about 8 ft in height) example of Yapese stone money (
Rai stones) in the village of Gachpar.
15.
Nauru
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Nauru, officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati,300 kilometres to the east and it further lies northwest of Tuvalu, north of the Solomon Islands, east-northeast of Papua New Guinea, southeast of the Federated States of Micronesia and south of the Marshall Islands. With 10,084 residents in a 21-square-kilometre area, Nauru is the smallest state in the South Pacific and third smallest state by area in the world, behind only Vatican City and Monaco. Settled by native peoples from Micronesia and Polynesia, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century, after World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese troops, after the war ended, the country entered into UN trusteeship. Nauru gained its independence in 1968, Nauru is a phosphate rock island with rich deposits near the surface, which allowed easy strip mining operations. It has some remaining phosphate resources which, as of 2011, are not economically viable for extraction, Nauru boasted the highest per-capita income enjoyed by any sovereign state in the world during the late 1960s and early 1970s. When the phosphate reserves were exhausted, and the environment had been seriously harmed by mining. To earn income, Nauru briefly became a tax haven and illegal money laundering centre, from 2001 to 2008, and again from 2012, it accepted aid from the Australian Government in exchange for hosting the Nauru detention centre. As a result of dependence on Australia, many sources have identified Nauru as a client state of Australia. Nauru was first inhabited by Micronesians and Polynesians at least 3,000 years ago, there were traditionally 12 clans or tribes on Nauru, which are represented in the 12-pointed star on the countrys flag. Traditionally, Nauruans traced their descent matrilineally, inhabitants practised aquaculture, they caught juvenile ibija fish, acclimatised them to fresh water, and raised them in the Buada Lagoon, providing a reliable source of food. The other locally grown components of their diet included coconuts and pandanus fruit, the name Nauru may derive from the Nauruan word Anáoero, which means I go to the beach. The British sea captain John Fearn, a hunter, became the first Westerner to visit Nauru in 1798. From around 1830, Nauruans had contact with Europeans from whaling ships, around this time, deserters from European ships began to live on the island. The islanders traded food for alcoholic palm wine and firearms, the firearms were used during the 10-year Nauruan Tribal War that began in 1878. After an agreement with Great Britain, Nauru was annexed by Germany in 1888, the arrival of the Germans ended the civil war, and kings were established as rulers of the island. The most widely known of these was King Auweyida, christian missionaries from the Gilbert Islands arrived in 1888
Nauru
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A Nauruan warrior, 1880.
Nauru
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Flag
Nauru
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US Army Air Force bombing the Japanese airstrip on Nauru, 1943.
Nauru
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Aerial view of Nauru
16.
Palau
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Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. The country contains approximately 250 islands, forming the western chain of the Caroline Islands in Micronesia, the most populous island is Koror. The capital Ngerulmud is located on the island of Babeldaob. Palau shares maritime boundaries with Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Federated States of Micronesia, the country was originally settled approximately 3,000 years ago by migrants from the Philippines and sustained a Negrito population until around 900 years ago. The islands were first explored by Europeans in the 16th century, the Imperial Japanese Navy conquered Palau during World War I, and the islands were later made a part of the Japanese-ruled South Pacific Mandate by the League of Nations. During World War II, skirmishes, including the major Battle of Peleliu, were fought between American and Japanese troops as part of the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign. Along with other Pacific Islands, Palau was made a part of the United States-governed Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947. Having voted against joining the Federated States of Micronesia in 1979, politically, Palau is a presidential republic in free association with the United States, which provides defense, funding, and access to social services. Legislative power is concentrated in the bicameral Palau National Congress, Palaus economy is based mainly on tourism, subsistence agriculture and fishing, with a significant portion of gross national product derived from foreign aid. The country uses the United States dollar as its currency, the islands culture mixes Micronesian, Melanesian, Asian, and Western elements. Ethnic Palauans, the majority of the population, are of mixed Micronesian, Melanesian, a smaller proportion of the population is descended from Japanese and Filipino settlers. The countrys two official languages are Palauan and English, with Japanese, Sonsorolese, and Tobian recognised as regional languages. The name for the islands in the Palauan language, Belau, likely derives from either the Palauan word for village, beluu, or from aibebelau, the name Palau entered the English language from the Spanish Los Palaos, via the German Palau. An archaic name for the islands in English was the Pelew Islands and it should not be confused with Pulau, which is a Malay word meaning island. Palau was originally settled between the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, most likely from the Austronesia or Indonesia, the islands sustained a population of short-statured Negrito or Pygmy people until the 12th century, when they were replaced. The modern population, judging by its language, may have come from the Sunda Islands, however, the Spanish presence only began to express with evangelization, began at the end of 17th century, and its dominance began to take shape in the 18th century. The conscious discovery of Palau came a century later in 1697 and they were interviewed by the Czech missionary Paul Klein on 28 December 1696. Klein was able to draw the first map of Palau based on the Palauans representation of their home islands that made with an arrangement of 87 pebbles on the beach
Palau
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Map of 1888 showing the Spanish East Indies, being part of it Palau Islands (map without Philippines)
Palau
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Flag
Palau
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Koror chiefs in 1915
Palau
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TTPI High Commissioner and staff, 1960s
17.
Solomon Islands
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The countrys capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal. The islands have been inhabited for thousands of years, in 1568, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit them, naming them the Islas Salomón. Britain defined its area of interest in the Solomon Islands archipelago in June 1893, during World War II, the Solomon Islands campaign saw fierce fighting between the United States and the Empire of Japan, such as in the Battle of Guadalcanal. The official name of the then British overseas territory was changed from the British Solomon Islands Protectorate to Solomon Islands in 1975, self-government was achieved in 1976, independence was obtained two years later. Today, Solomon Islands is a monarchy with the Queen of Solomon Islands, currently Queen Elizabeth II. Manasseh Sogavare is the current prime minister, in 1568, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit the Solomon Islands archipelago, naming it Islas Salomón after the wealthy biblical King Solomon. It is said that they were given name in the mistaken assumption that they contained great riches. During most of the period of British rule the territory was named the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. On 22 June 1975 the territory was renamed Solomon Islands, when Solomon Islands became independent in 1978 they retained the name. The definite article, the, is not part of the official name but is sometimes used. It is believed that Papuan-speaking settlers began to arrive around 30,000 BC, austronesian speakers arrived c.4000 BC also bringing cultural elements such as the outrigger canoe. Between 1200 and 800 BC the ancestors of the Polynesians, the Lapita people, the first European to visit the islands was the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira, coming from Peru in 1568. The people of Solomon Islands were notorious for headhunting and cannibalism before the arrival of the Europeans, missionaries began visiting the Solomons in the mid-19th century. They made little progress at first, because blackbirding led to a series of reprisals, the evils of the labour trade prompted the United Kingdom to declare a protectorate over the southern Solomons in June 1893. Traditional trade and social intercourse between the western Solomon Islands of Mono and Alu and the societies in the south of Bougainville, however. Missionaries settled in the Solomons under the protectorate, converting most of the population to Christianity, in the early 20th century several British and Australian firms began large-scale coconut planting. Economic growth was slow, however, and the islanders benefited little, journalist Joe Melvin visited in 1892, as part of his undercover investigation into blackbirding. In 1908 the islands were visited by Jack London, who was cruising the Pacific on his boat, with the outbreak of the Second World War most planters and traders were evacuated to Australia and most cultivation ceased
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
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Flag
Solomon Islands
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Solomon Island warriors, armed with spears, aboard an ornamented war canoe (1895).
Solomon Islands
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The aircraft carrier
USS Enterprise (CV-6) under aerial attack during the
Battle of the Eastern Solomons.
18.
South Sudan
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South Sudan, officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in northeastern Africa that gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city and it was planned that the capital city would be changed to the more centrally located Ramciel in the future before civil war broke out. It includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd, formed by the White Nile, following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon developed and ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005, later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed. South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011, following a referendum passed with 98. 83% of the vote. It is a United Nations member state, a state of the African Union, of the East African Community. In July 2012, South Sudan signed the Geneva Conventions, South Sudan has suffered ethnic violence and has been in a civil war since 2013, as of 2016 it has the second highest score on the Fragile States Index. The Nilotic people of South Sudan—the Acholi, Anyuak, Bari, Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Kaligi, Zande, the Azande, Mundu, Avukaya and Baka, who entered South Sudan in the 16th century—established the regions largest state of Equatoria Region. The Dinka are the largest, Nuer the second largest and Azande are the third-largest ethnic group in South Sudan while the Bari are fourth-largest. They are found in the Maridi, Yambio, and Tombura districts in the tropical rainforest belt of Western Equatoria, in the 18th century, the Avungara sib rose to power over the rest of Azande society and this domination continued into the 20th century. The major reasons include the history of British policy preference toward developing the Arab north. After Sudans first independent elections in 1958, the ignoring of the south by Khartoum led to uprisings, revolt. As of 2012, peoples include Acholi, Anyuak, Azande, Baka, Balanda Bviri, Bari, Boya, Didinga, Dinka, Jiye, Kaligi, Kuku, Lotuka, Mundari, Murie, Nilotic, Nuer, Shilluk, Toposa and Zande. Slavery had been an institution of Sudanese life throughout history, the slave trade in the south intensified in the 19th century and continued after the British had suppressed slavery in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Annual Sudanese slave raids into non-Muslim territories resulted in the capture of thousands of southern Sudanese. In the 19th century, the Azande fought the French, the Belgians, Egypt, under the rule of Khedive Ismail Pasha, first attempted to control the region in the 1870s, establishing the province of Equatoria in the southern portion. Egypts first governor was Samuel Baker, commissioned in 1869, followed by Charles George Gordon in 1874, the Mahdist Revolt of the 1880s destabilized the nascent province, and Equatoria ceased to exist as an Egyptian outpost in 1889. Important settlements in Equatoria included Lado, Gondokoro, Dufile and Wadelai, european colonial maneuverings in the region came to a head in 1898, when the Fashoda Incident occurred at present-day Kodok, Britain and France almost went to war over the region
South Sudan
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John Garang de Mabior led the
Sudan People's Liberation Army until his death in 2005.
South Sudan
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Flag
South Sudan
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A South Sudanese girl at independence festivities
South Sudan
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Salva Kiir Mayardit, the first President of South Sudan. His trademark
hat was a gift from United States President
George W. Bush.
19.
East Timor
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East Timor or Timor-Leste, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a sovereign state in Maritime Southeast Asia. It comprises the half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse. The countrys size is about 15,410 km2, nine days later, it was invaded and occupied by Indonesia and was declared Indonesias 27th province the following year. The Indonesian occupation of East Timor was characterised by a highly violent decades-long conflict between separatist groups and the Indonesian military, in 1999, following the United Nations-sponsored act of self-determination, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory. East Timor became the first new state of the 21st century on 20 May 2002 and joined the United Nations. In 2011, East Timor announced its intention to gain status in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by applying to become its eleventh member. It is one of two predominantly Christian nations in Southeast Asia, the other being the Philippines. In Indonesian, the country is called Timor Timur, thus using the Portuguese name for the island followed by the word for east, the official names under the Constitution are Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste in English, República Democrática de Timor-Leste in Portuguese and Repúblika Demokrátika Timór-Leste in Tetum. Humans first settled in East Timor 42,000 years ago, descendants of at least three waves of migration are believed still to live in East Timor. The first is described by anthropologists as people of the Veddo-Australoid type, around 3000 BC, a second migration brought Melanesians. The earlier Veddo-Australoid peoples withdrew at this time to the mountainous interior, finally, proto-Malays arrived from south China and north Indochina. Hakka traders are among those descended from this final group, Timorese origin myths tell of ancestors that sailed around the eastern end of Timor arriving on land in the south. Some stories recount Timorese ancestors journeying from the Malay Peninsula or the Minangkabau highlands of Sumatra, austronesians migrated to Timor, and are thought to be associated with the development of agriculture on the island. Thirdly, Proto-Malays arrived from south China and north Indochina, before European colonialism, Timor was included in Chinese and Indian trading networks, and in the 14th century was an exporter of aromatic sandalwood, slaves, honey, and wax. It was the abundance of sandalwood in Timor that attracted European explorers to the island in the early 16th century. During that time, European explorers reported that the island had a number of small chiefdoms or princedoms, the Portuguese established outposts in Timor and Maluku. Effective European occupation of a part of the territory began in 1769, when the city of Dili was founded. For the Portuguese, East Timor remained little more than a trading post until the late nineteenth century, with minimal investment in infrastructure, health
East Timor
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"Timor of the rising sun" Sunrise on Mount
Tatamailau
East Timor
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Flag
East Timor
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A demonstration for
independence from Indonesia held in Australia during September 1999
East Timor
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José Ramos-Horta, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner, second President of East Timor
20.
State of Palestine
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The State of Palestine claims the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as the designated capital. Most of the areas claimed by the State of Palestine have been occupied by Israel since 1967 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War and its independence was declared on 15 November 1988 by the Palestine Liberation Organization in Algiers as a government-in-exile. Since the British Mandate, the term Palestine has been associated with the area that currently covers the State of Israel, the West Bank. In 1947, the UN adopted a plan for a two-state solution in the remaining territory of the mandate. The plan was accepted by the Jewish leadership but rejected by the Arab leaders, on the eve of final British withdrawal, the Jewish Agency for Israel declared the establishment of the State of Israel according to the proposed UN plan. During the war, Israel gained additional territories that were designated to be part of the Arab state under the UN plan, Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip and Transjordan occupied the West Bank. Egypt initially supported the creation of an All-Palestine Government, but disbanded it in 1959, Transjordan never recognized it and instead decided to incorporate the West Bank with its own territory to form Jordan. The annexation was ratified in 1950 but was rejected by the international community, the Six-Day War in 1967, when Egypt, Jordan, and Syria fought against Israel, ended with Israel being in occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, besides other territories. In 1964, when the West Bank was controlled by Jordan, the Palestinian National Charter of the PLO defines the boundaries of Palestine as the whole remaining territory of the mandate, including Israel. Following the Six-Day War, the PLO moved to Jordan, the October 1974 Arab League summit designated the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and reaffirmed their right to establish an independent state of urgency. In November 1974, the PLO was recognized as competent on all matters concerning the question of Palestine by the UN General Assembly granting them observer status as an entity at the UN. In spite of this decision, the PLO did not participate at the UN in its capacity of the State of Palestines government, in 1979, through the Camp David Accords, Egypt signaled an end to any claim of its own over the Gaza Strip. In July 1988, Jordan ceded its claims to the West Bank—with the exception of guardianship over Haram al-Sharif—to the PLO, in November 1988, the PLO legislature, while in exile, declared the establishment of the State of Palestine. In the month following, it was recognised by many states, including Egypt. In the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, the State of Palestine is described as being established on the Palestinian territory, the UN membership application submitted by the State of Palestine also specified that it is based on the 1967 borders. During the negotiations of the Oslo Accords, the PLO recognised Israels right to exist, after Israel took control of the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza Strip from Egypt, it began to establish Israeli settlements there. These were organised into Judea and Samaria district and Hof Aza Regional Council in the Southern District, in 1980, Israel decided to freeze elections for these councils and to establish instead Village Leagues, whose officials were under Israeli influence. Later this model became ineffective for both Israel and the Palestinians, and the Village Leagues began to break up, with the last being the Hebron League, dissolved in February 1988
State of Palestine
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The destroyed
Palestinian Legislative Council building in Gaza City,
Gaza–Israel conflict, September 2009
State of Palestine
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Flag
State of Palestine
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Palestinian children in
Jenin, a city on the West Bank
21.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
French language
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The
"arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in
Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.
French language
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Regions where French is the main language
French language
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Town sign in
Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of
Rechmaya in
Lebanon.
French language
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An obsolete 100
Lebanese pound note with the French language inscriptions "Banque du Liban" and "Cent livres".
22.
Swiss franc
–
The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione dItalia. The Swiss National Bank issues banknotes and the federal mint Swissmint issues coins, the smaller denomination, a hundredth of a franc, is a Rappen in German, centime in French, centesimo in Italian, and rap in Romansh. The ISO code of the used by banks and financial institutions is CHF, although Fr. is used by most businesses and advertisers. Given the different languages used in Switzerland, Latin is used for inscriptions on the coins. In 1798, the Helvetic Republic introduced a currency based on the Berne thaler, the Swiss franc was equal to 6 3⁄4 grams of pure silver or 1 1⁄2 French francs. This franc was issued until the end of the Helvetic Republic in 1803, in order to solve this problem, the new Swiss Federal Constitution of 1848 specified that the federal government would be the only entity allowed to make money in Switzerland. This was followed two years later by the first Federal Coinage Act, passed by the Federal Assembly on 7 May 1850, the franc was introduced at par with the French franc. It replaced the different currencies of the Swiss cantons, some of which had been using a franc which was worth 1 1⁄2 French francs. In 1865, France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland formed the Latin Monetary Union, the currency was devalued by 30% following the devaluations of the British pound, U. S. dollar and French franc. In 1945, Switzerland joined the Bretton Woods system and pegged the franc to the U. S. dollar at a rate of $1 =4.30521 francs and this was changed to $1 =4.375 francs in 1949. The Swiss franc has historically considered a safe-haven currency with virtually zero inflation. However, this link to gold, which dates from the 1920s, was terminated on 1 May 2000 following a referendum. By March 2005, following a gold selling program, the Swiss National Bank held 1,290 tonnes of gold in reserves which equated to 20% of its assets. In November 2014, the referendum on the Swiss Gold Initiative which proposed a restoration of 20% gold backing for the Swiss franc was voted down, in March 2011 the franc climbed past the US$1.10 mark. In June 2011 the franc climbed past US$1.20 as investors sought safety amidst the continuation of the Greek sovereign-debt crisis, demand for francs and franc-denominated assets was so strong that nominal short-term Swiss interest rates became negative. In response to the announcement the franc fell against the euro, to 1.22 francs from 1.12 francs, the intervention stunned currency traders since the franc had long been regarded as a safe haven. The franc fell 8. 8% against the euro,9. 5% against the dollar and it was the largest plunge of the franc ever against the euro. The SNB had previously set an exchange rate target in 1978 against the Deutsche mark and maintained it, although at the cost of high inflation
Swiss franc
–
Banknotes
Swiss franc
Swiss franc
–
16 francs, Helvetic Republic, 1800, gold
Swiss franc
–
1 Swiss franc 1995
23.
Patent Cooperation Treaty
–
The Patent Cooperation Treaty is an international patent law treaty, concluded in 1970. It provides a procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in each of its contracting states. A patent application filed under the PCT is called an international application, a single filing of a PCT application is made with a Receiving Office in one language. It then results in a search performed by an International Searching Authority, accompanied by an opinion regarding the patentability of the invention. It is optionally followed by an examination, performed by an International Preliminary Examining Authority. Finally, the relevant national or regional authorities administer matters related to the examination of application, the contracting states, the states which are parties to the PCT, constitute the International Patent Cooperation Union. The Washington Diplomatic Conference on the Patent Cooperation Treaty was held in Washington from 25 May to 19 June 1970, the Patent Cooperation Treaty was signed on the last day of the conference on 19 June 1970. The Treaty entered into force on 24 January 1978, initially with 18 contracting states, the first international applications were filed on 1 June 1978. The Treaty was subsequently amended in 1979, and modified in 1984 and 2001, any contracting state to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property can become a member of the PCT. A majority of the countries are parties to the PCT. As of 16 March 2017, there were 152 contracting states to the PCT. Jordan became the 152nd contracting state on 9 March 2017, the PCT will enter into force for Jordan on 9 June 2017. From a practical standpoint, this could allow new ventures more time to locate strategic partnerships, funding, a PCT application has two phases. The first phase is the phase in which patent protection is pending under a single patent application filed with the patent office of a contracting state of the PCT. A PCT application, as such, is not an actual request that a patent be granted, the first step of the procedure consists in filing an international application with a competent patent office, called a Receiving Office. This application is called an application or simply a PCT application since it does not result in an international patent nor in a PCT patent. At least one applicant must be a national or resident of a state to the PCT, otherwise. If a PCT filing date is erroneously accorded, the Receiving Office may, within four months from the filing date, later changes in the applicant’s country of residence have no consequence on the validity of the international application itself. In most member states, the applicant or at least one of the applicants of the application is required to be a national or resident of the state of the office where the application is filed
Patent Cooperation Treaty
–
Patent Cooperation Treaty members [
dated info]
24.
Trademark
–
The trademark owner can be an individual, business organization, or any legal entity. A trademark may be located on a package, a label, for the sake of corporate identity, trademarks are often displayed on company buildings. A trademark identifies the owner of a particular product or service. The unauthorized usage of trademarks by producing and trading counterfeit consumer goods is known as brand piracy, the owner of a trademark may pursue legal action against trademark infringement. Most countries require formal registration of a trademark as a precondition for pursuing this type of action, the United States, Canada and other countries also recognize common law trademark rights, which means action can be taken to protect an unregistered trademark if it is in use. Still, common law trademarks offer the holder in general less legal protection than registered trademarks. A trademark may be designated by the symbols, ™ ℠ ® A trademark is typically a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image. There is also a range of non-conventional trademarks comprising marks which do not fall into these categories, such as those based on colour, smell. Trademarks which are considered offensive are often rejected according to a nations trademark law, the term trademark is also used informally to refer to any distinguishing attribute by which an individual is readily identified, such as the well-known characteristics of celebrities. When a trademark is used in relation to services rather than products, it may sometimes be called a service mark, in other words, trademarks serve to identify a particular business as the source of goods or services. The use of a trademark in this way is known as trademark use, certain exclusive rights attach to a registered mark. Different goods and services have been classified by the International Classification of Goods, in trademark treatises it is usually reported that blacksmiths who made swords in the Roman Empire are thought of as being the first users of trademarks. Other notable trademarks that have used for a long time include Löwenbräu. The first trademark legislation was passed by the Parliament of England under the reign of King Henry III in 1266, the first modern trademark laws emerged in the late 19th century. In France the first comprehensive system in the world was passed into law in 1857 with the Manufacture. In Britain, the Merchandise Marks Act 1862 made it an offense to imitate anothers trade mark with intent to defraud or to enable another to defraud. In 1875 the Trade Marks Registration Act was passed which allowed formal registration of marks at the UK Patent Office for the first time. Registration was considered to comprise prima facie evidence of ownership of a trade mark, in the United States, Congress first attempted to establish a federal trademark regime in 1870
Trademark
–
Gym weights displaying a counterfeit trademark
Trademark
–
The "Registered Trade mark" logo
25.
Industrial design rights
–
An industrial design right is an intellectual property right that protects the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern, an industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft. Under the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs, a WIPO-administered treaty, to qualify for registration, the national laws of most member states of WIPO require the design to be novel. An applicant can file for a single international deposit with WIPO or with the office in a country party to the treaty. The design will then be protected in as many countries of the treaty as desired. Design rights started in the United Kingdom in 1787 with the Designing and Printing of Linen Act and have expanded from there, registering for an industrial design right is related to granting a patent. An industrial design is registrable if it is new, indias Design Act,2000 was enacted to consolidate and amend the law relating to protection of design and to comply with the articles 25 and 26 of TRIPS agreement. In Indonesia the protection of the Right to Industrial Design shall be granted for 10 years commencing from the filing date, Industrial Designs that are Granted Protection 1. The Right to Industrial Design shall be granted for an Industrial Design that is novel/new 2, an Industrial Design shall be deemed new if on the filing date, such Industrial Design is not the same as any previous disclosure. The previous disclosure as referred to in point 2 shall be one which before, the Priority Date, if the applicant is filed with priority right. Has been announced or used in Indonesia or out side Indonesia, an industrial design shall not be deemed to have been announced if within the period of 6 months at the latest before the filing date, such industrial design a. Has been displayed in a national or international exhibition in Indonesia or overseas that is official or deemed to be official, or, has been used in Indonesia by the designer in an experiment for the purposes of education, research or development. Canadian law affords ten years of protection to industrial designs that are registered, the articles being compared should not be examined side by side, but separate so that imperfect recollection comes into play. One is to look at the design as a whole and it must not be trivial or infinitesimal. The rule also applies to kits and substantial differences are in reference to previously published designs, Industrial designs can also serve to complement other forms of intellectual property rights such as patents and trade-marks. Protection for a community design is for up to 25 years. The unregistered community design lasts for three years after a design is available to the public and infringement only occurs if the protected design has been copied. Legislation given in Britain during the years 1787 to 1839 protected designs for textiles, the Copyright of Design Act passed in 1842 allowed other material designs, such as those for metal and earthenware objects, to be registered with a diamond mark to indicate the date of registration
Industrial design rights
–
Australian Registered Design Procedure
26.
Australia
–
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
Australia
–
Aboriginal rock art in the
Kimberley region of Western Australia
Australia
Australia
–
Portrait of Captain
James Cook, the first European to map the eastern coastline of Australia in 1770
Australia
–
Tasmania's
Port Arthur penal settlement is one of eleven UNESCO World Heritage-listed
Australian Convict Sites.
27.
Sudan
–
Sudan, also known as North Sudan since South Sudans independence and officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northern Africa. It is the third largest country in Africa, the River Nile divides the country into eastern and western halves. Before the Sudanese Civil War, South Sudan was part of Sudan, Sudan was home to numerous ancient civilizations, such as the Kingdom of Kush, Kerma, Nobatia, Alodia, Makuria, Meroë and others, most of which flourished along the Nile. During the pre-dynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were identical, by virtue of its proximity to Egypt, the Sudan participated in the wider history of the Near East inasmuch as it was Christianized by the 6th century, and Islamized in the 15th. As a result of Christianization, the Old Nubian language stands as the oldest recorded Nilo-Saharan language, Sudan was the largest country in Africa and the Arab world until 2011, when South Sudan separated into an independent country, following an independence referendum. Sudan is now the third largest country in Africa and also the third largest country in the Arab world and its capital is Khartoum, the political, cultural and commercial centre of the nation. It is a representative democratic federal republic. The politics of Sudan are regulated by an organization called the National Assembly. The Sudanese legal system is based on Islamic law, the countrys place name Sudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān, or the lands of the Blacks, during the fifth millennium BC migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture. The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed social hierarchy over the centuries become the Kingdom of Kush at 1700 BC. The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile and White Nile, and the Atbarah River and it was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, centered at Napata in its early phase. After King Kashta invaded Egypt in the eighth century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt for a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians. At the height of their glory, the Kushites conquered an empire that stretched from what is now known as South Kordofan all the way to the Sinai, pharaoh Piye attempted to expand the empire into the Near East, but was thwarted by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Sennacheribs successor Esarhaddon went further, and invaded Egypt itself, deposing Taharqa, Taharqa fled back to his homeland where he died two years later. Egypt became an Assyrian colony, however, king Tantamani, after succeeding Taharqa, Esarhaddon died while preparing to leave the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in order to eject him. However, his successor Ashurbanipal sent an army into southern Egypt and routed Tantamani. During Classical Antiquity, the Nubian capital was at Meroë, in ancient Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Ethiopia
Sudan
–
The large mud brick temple, known as the shrek or Western Deffufa, in the ancient city of
Kerma
Sudan
–
Flag
Sudan
–
Nubian pyramids in
Meroë.
Sudan
–
Ruins of
Old Dongola.
28.
United States
–
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
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
29.
Netherlands
–
The Netherlands 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
Netherlands
–
The Netherlands in 5500 BC
Netherlands
–
Flag
Netherlands
–
The Netherlands in 500 BC
Netherlands
–
An oak figurine found in
Willemstad, North Brabant (4500 BC).
30.
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
–
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is a multinational treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement. The agreement was signed in October 2011 by Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, in 2012, Mexico, the European Union and 22 countries which are member states of the European Union signed as well. One signatory has ratified the agreement, which would come into force in countries that ratified it after ratification by six countries, organizations such as the Motion Picture Association of America and International Trademark Association are understood to have had a significant influence over the ACTA agenda. Organisations representing citizens and non-governmental interests argued that ACTA could infringe fundamental rights including freedom of expression, ACTA has also been criticised by Doctors Without Borders for endangering access to medicines in developing countries. The signature of the EU and many of its member states resulted in protests across Europe. European Parliament rapporteur Kader Arif resigned, on 4 July 2012, the European Parliament declined its consent, effectively rejecting it,478 votes to 39, with 165 abstentions. Negotiations for the ACTA treaty are not part of any international body, ACTA was first developed by Japan and the United States in 2006. Canada, the European Union and Switzerland joined the talks throughout 2006 and 2007. Official negotiations began in June 2008, with Australia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, the Senate of Mexico voted unanimously to withdraw Mexico from ACTA negotiations on 30 September 2010. ACTA first came to attention in May 2008 after a discussion paper was uploaded to WikiLeaks. According to a European Union commentary however there was at that stage no draft, leaked details published in February 2009 showed the 6 chapter-division also present in the final text. On 23 March 2010, the entire 18 January 2010 consolidated text of sections 2.1 and 2.4 along with the demands of each negotiator was leaked to the public, the negotiating parties published the then-current draft on 20 April 2010. A group of over 75 law professors signed a letter to President Obama demanding that ACTA be halted and changed, the revised and final text, dated 15 November 2010, was leaked on 16 November 2010 by several websites. It was also decided to not release individual negotiating positions of countries, the final draft text was published on 20 April 2010. The final text was released on 15 November 2010, and published on 15 April 2011 in English, French, a draft Report from 26 August 2008 by the European Commission tried to establish a mandate from the European Parliament for the negotiation of ACTA. On 25 September 2008 the Council of the European Union adopted a resolution in support of ACTA, as of 26 December 2014, the treaty was signed -but not all ratified- by 31 states as well as the European Union. Japan was on 4 October 2012 the first to ratify the treaty and it enters into force after subsequent ratification by six states. After 1 May 2013, WTO members that did not sign, a signing ceremony was held on 1 October 2011 in Tokyo, with the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea signing the treaty
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
–
Stakeholders' consultation meeting on 21 April 2009 at the
Charlemagne building in
Brussels
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
–
ACTA
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
–
Booklet criticizing the treaty
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
–
Protests in
Poland, January 2012
31.
United States and the United Nations
–
The United States of America is a charter member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The United States is the largest provider of financial contributions to the United Nations, providing 22 percent of the UN budget in 2015, the United States had a pivotal role in establishing the UN and is one of 5 permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The UN is an outgrowth of the Atlantic Charter. It appeared in the Declaration by United Nations on January 1,1942, in which 26 nations pledged to continue fighting the Axis powers. ”Roosevelt’s main role was to convince the different allies, especially Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, to join the new organization. It is interesting to note that saw the United Nations as the crowning achievement of his political career. ”In 1945. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin reviewed the Dumbarton Oaks proposal during the Yalta Conference in February 1945. ”The world leaders eventually agreed on Roosevelt’s proposal to give members an veto power so “that the Organization could take no important action without their joint consent. ”Though the veto power question created a lot of disagreement among the different signatories, its inclusion in the charter was never a matter of negotiation for Roosevelt. Finally, during the Yalta conference, Stalin agreed to make the USSR a member of the United Nations, an important American contribution, prior to the formation of the United Nations, was made at the Bretton Woods Conference. This conference took place in 1944 and its goal was “to create a new monetary and trade regime that was stable and predictable. ”Over subsequent decades. It was implemented through different institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations was the first international governmental organization to receive significant support from the United States. Its forerunner, the League of Nations, had been championed by Woodrow Wilson after World War I to prevent future conflicts, shortly after the establishment of the United Nations, the United States came into conflict with another member of the Security Council. Since the Soviet Union was a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, in fact, Soviet foreign minister and UN ambassador Vyacheslav Molotov used veto power twice as often as any other permanent member, earning him the title Mr. Veto. Relations between the U. S. and the Soviet Union within the UN have evolved in step with the geopolitical situation between the two powers. Later, the U. S. persuaded all permanent members of the Security Council to authorize force against Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1991. This was a step toward U. S. and Russian reconciliation after the end of the Cold War. S. Conflict between the U. S. and the UN predates the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1971, the UN adopted Resolution 2758—which affected the admission of the Peoples Republic of China and the removal of the Republic of China—despite objections by the U. S. government. The U. S. government changed its own China policy shortly afterward, however, the U. S. governments repeated opposition to Arab military actions has created much more tension between the U. S. government and the United Nations. The General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 1975 was strongly opposed by U. S. officials, in 1991, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 4686, which effectively negated Resolution 3379. Of these 12 occasions, only two related to other than the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
United States and the United Nations
–
George W. Bush addressed the General Assembly on September 12, 2002 on Iraq prior to the passage of Resolution 1441.
32.
World Intellectual Property Day
–
World Intellectual Property Day is observed annually on 26 April. In October 1999, the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization approved the idea of declaring a particular day as a World Intellectual Property Day,2016 – Digital Creativity, Culture Reimagined. World Intellectual Property Day on the South African Company Intellectual Property Registration Office web site, World Intellectual Property Day on the Canadian Intellectual Property Office web site. Heroes and villains of World Intellectual Property Day on Out-Law. com
World Intellectual Property Day
–
An exhibition showing the
intellectual property (IP) behind
Steve Jobs ’ innovations opened to the public at
WIPO on 30 March 2012 and ran through to World Intellectual Property Day on 26 April 2012. The exhibition tied in with 2012’s World Intellectual Property Day theme – 'Visionary Innovators'.
33.
United Nations Economic and Social Council
–
The ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to member states and the United Nations system. A number of organisations have been granted consultative status to the Council to participate in the work of the United Nations. The president is elected for a term and chosen from the small or mid-sized powers represented on the ECOSOC. His Excellency Frederick Musiiwa Makamure Shava was elected seventy-second President of the Economic, Ambassador Shava is currently the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Zimbabwe to the United Nations in New York. The Council has 54 member states out of the 193 UN member states, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon added, Rather than viewing growth and sustainability as competing goals on a collision course, we must see them as complementary and mutually supportive imperatives. The report concluded that Business as usual is not an option, governance of the multilateral system has historically been complex and fragmented. This has limited the capacity of the ECOSOC to influence policies in trade, finance. Reform proposals aim to enhance the relevance and contribution of the council, a major reform was approved by the 2005 World Summit on the basis of proposals submitted by secretary-general Kofi Annan. At the Summit it was decided to hold annual ministerial-level substantive reviews to assess progress in achieving internationally agreed development goals. These Annual Ministeral Reviews will be replaced by the High Level Political Forum from 2016 onwards after the new post-MDG/Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals are agreed. Subsequent proposals by the High-Level Panel Report on System-Wide Coherence in November 2006 aimed to establish a forum within the ECOSOC as a counter-model to the clubs of the G8. The Forum was to comprise 27 heads of state to meet annually and this proposal, however, was not approved by the General Assembly. The Economic and Social Council Chamber in the United Nations Conference Building was a gift from Sweden and it was conceived by Swedish architect Sven Markelius, one of the 11 architects in the international team that designed the UN headquarters. Wood from Swedish pine trees was used in the area for the railings
United Nations Economic and Social Council
–
The room of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
UN headquarters,
New York City
United Nations Economic and Social Council
–
United Nations Economic and Social Council
United Nations Economic and Social Council
–
ECOSOC Resolution 2007/25: Support to
Non-Self-Governing Territories by the specialized agencies and international institutions associated with the United Nations (26 July 2007)
34.
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
–
The Commission on the Status of Women is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, one of the main UN organs within the United Nations. UN agencies actively followed their mandates to bring women into development approaches and programs, the CSW is one of the commissions of the UN that do not limit participation to states only. For example, NGOs are also allowed to participate in sessions of the CSW, attending caucuses and panels and organizing their own events through the NGO Committee on the Status of Women. This is particularly important for contested territories such as Taiwan, which is not a member of the UN, in the past few years, NGOs from Taiwan have been able to participate in the CSW sessions. Members are elected for a period of four years, the Commissions priority theme for its 57th session, March 2013 was announced as the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls. Ahead of that an Expert Group Meeting, prevention of violence against women and girls was held in Bangkok, Thailand, the Bureau of the Commission plays an important role in guiding proper preparation for, and in making sure that the annual sessions of the Commission are successful. Bureau members serve for two years, the UNCSW was established in 1946 as a mechanism to promote, report on and monitor issues relating to the political, economic, civil, social and educational rights of women. It was an official structure for drawing attention to women’s concerns. The Commission on the Status of Women first met at Lake Success, New York, all of the 15 government representatives were women which separated the Commission from other UN movements and through history continues to maintain a majority of women delegates. Contributing to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights became one of the first tasks. Commission members inserted gender-sensitive language — arguing against references to “men” as a synonym for humanity and phrases like “men are brothers. ”They received resistance from members of the Commission on Human Rights, but succeeded in introducing new, inclusive language. Jessie Mary Grey Street, Australia Evdokia Uralova, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic Way Sung New and this was achieved through a variety of means, most commonly through attempts to collect data that showed discrimination occurring against women. In conjunction with the global womens movement, the UN. This convention stipulated that with regards to rights, reproduction should not be a basis for discrimination. It also acknowledges the social implications of motherhood, and states that childcare and maternity protection are integral rights, CEDAW is the only international human rights treaty that overtly references family planning. Forced abortion or sterilization constitute violations to the treaty, the United States has failed to ratify CEDAW. In addition to CEDAW, the CSW has undertaken several other efforts to address reproductive rights, throughout this time, the Commission hosted four global conferences on women to address issues including reproductive rights. The locations were Mexico City in 1975, Copenhagen in 1980, in 1995, the Commission held the Fourth World Conference for Action, better known as the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
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"Commission on the Status of Women" redirects here. For the U.S. presidential commission, see
Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.
35.
United Nations Forum on Forests
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The United Nations Forum on Forests is a high-level intergovernmental policy forum. The forum includes all United Nations Member States and Permanent Observers, the UNFF Secretariat, the IPF/IFF processes resulted in a set of 270 proposals for action for the promotion of the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests. On December 17,2007, the UN General Assembly adopted the Non-Legally Binding Instrument on All Types of Forests negotiated by the UNFF earlier that year, the CPF works to support the work of the UNFF and its member countries and to foster increased cooperation and coordination on forests. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations helps developing countries and countries in transition modernise and improve their agriculture, forestry, the International Tropical Timber Organization promotes the conservation and sustainable management, use and trade of tropical forest resources. It develops internationally agreed policies and assists tropical member countries to adapt policies to local circumstances. As of 2009, it has supported more than 900 projects, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature is a conservation network of states, government agencies, nongovernment organisations, scientists and experts. The International Union of Forest Research Organizations is a not-for-profit, nongovernmental international network of forest scientists and it promotes global cooperation in forest-related research and enhances the understanding of the ecological, economic and social aspects of forests and trees. It disseminates scientific knowledge to stakeholders and decision makers and contributes to forest policy, as a financial mechanism for the three environmental conventions dealing with forests, the GEF has been funding activities in the field of sustainable forest management since its inception in 1991. Of the GEFs six focal areas, biodiversity, climate change, the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification works with member countries to implement the UNCCD. This convention is the international, legally binding framework set up to address desertification and is based on the principles of participation, partnership. The UNCCD focuses on improving productivity, rehabilitating land. The United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat provides support to the international dialogue on sustainable forest management. The Secretariat works with a range of international organizations and stakeholders to facilitate cooperation and coordination on global forest issues. It serves as the point on all forest-related issues for the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change provides the basis for concerted action to mitigate climate change. The UNFCCC Secretariat supports all institutions involved in the change process. It operates on the ground in 166 countries, UNDP is an implementing agency for the Global Environment Facility. The United Nations Environment Programme is the voice for the environment in the UN system, UNEP is an implementing agency for the Global Environment Facility
United Nations Forum on Forests
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United Nations Forum on Forests
36.
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
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The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe was established in 1947 to encourage economic cooperation among its member States. It is one of five regional commissions under the direction of United Nations headquarters. It has 56 member States, and reports to the United Nations Economic, besides countries in Europe, it also includes Canada, the Central Asian republics, Israel and the United States of America. The UNECE secretariat headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland, and has a budget of US$50 million. The 56 member countries are listed below,18 of the UNECEs member countries are recipients of official development assistance. CEP is the governing body of UNECE environmental activities. Participating and/or facilitating the exchange of experience in a number of activities undertaken under the leadership of UNECE. In 1947, UNECE set up a Panel on Housing Problems, the Committee is an intergovernmental body of all UNECE member States. The UNECE Transport Division has been providing services to the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations. The UNECE Statistical Division provides the secretariat for the Conference and its expert groups, the Statistical Division develops guidelines and training materials on statistical methodology and practices, in response to demands from member countries. The UNECE Statistical Division also provides assistance to South-East European, East European, Caucasus. 2) A biennial overview of key statistics for member countries, UNECE Countries in Figures, 3) A set of wikis to support collaboration activities and disseminate information about good practices. UNECE conducted the Fertility and Family Survey in the 1990s in 23 member States, with over 150,000 participants and this activity has hence continued in the form of the Generations and Gender Programme. From 1982 to 2007 the IOS Press published the Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe on behalf of the UNECE
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
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United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
37.
International Labour Organization
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The International Labour Organization is a United Nations agency dealing with labour problems, particularly international labour standards, social protection, and work opportunities for all. The ILO has 187 member states,186 of the 193 UN member states plus the Cook Islands are members of the ILO, the ILO registers complaints against entities that are violating international rules, however, it does not impose sanctions on governments. Unlike other United Nations specialized agencies, the International Labour Organization has a governing structure – representing governments, employers. The rationale behind the structure is the creation of free and open debate among governments. The ILO secretariat is referred to as the International Labour Office, juan Somavía was the ILOs director-general from 1999 until October 2012, when Guy Ryder was elected as his replacement. This governing body is composed of 28 government representatives,14 workers representatives, ten of the government seats are held by member states that are nations of chief industrial importance, as first considered by an impartial committee. The nations are Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the terms of office are three years. The ILO organizes the International Labour Conference in Geneva every year in June, also known as the parliament of labour, the conference also makes decisions about the ILOs general policy, work programme and budget. Each member state has four representatives at the conference, two government delegates, a delegate and a worker delegate. All of them have individual voting rights, and all votes are equal, the employer and worker delegates are normally chosen in agreement with the most representative national organizations of employers and workers. Usually, the workers delegates coordinate their voting, as do the employers delegates, all delegate have the same rights, and are not required to vote in blocs. Through July 2011, the ILO has adopted 189 conventions, if these conventions are ratified by enough governments, they become in force. However, ILO conventions are considered international labour standards regardless of ratification, when a convention comes into force, it creates a legal obligation for ratifying nations to apply its provisions. Every year the International Labour Conferences Committee on the Application of Standards examines a number of alleged breaches of international labour standards, governments are required to submit reports detailing their compliance with the obligations of the conventions they have ratified. Conventions that have not been ratified by member states have the legal force as do recommendations. In 1998, the 86th International Labour Conference adopted the Declaration on Fundamental Principles, the ILO asserts that its members have an obligation to work towards fully respecting these principles, embodied in relevant ILO Conventions. The ILO Conventions which embody the principles have now been ratified by most member states. Recommendations do not have the force of conventions and are not subject to ratification
International Labour Organization
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ILO headquarters in
Geneva
International Labour Organization
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International Labour Organization
International Labour Organization
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Interpreting booth ready for an ILO meeting
International Labour Organization
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ILO building in Geneva with
Salève in the background
38.
Food and Agriculture Organization
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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is an agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements. Its Latin motto, fiat panis, translates as let there be bread, as of 6 January 2017, FAO has 194 member states, along with the European Union, and the Faroe Islands and Tokelau, which are associate members. The idea of an organization for food and agriculture emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century. In May–June 1905, a conference was held in Rome, Italy. Later in 1943, the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a United Nations Conference on Food, representatives from forty four governments gathered at The Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia from 18 May to 3 June. The First Session of the FAO Conference was held in the Chateau frontenac at Quebec, Canada, the Second World War effectively ended the International Agricultural Institute, though it was only officially dissolved by resolution of its Permanent Committee on 27 February 1948. Its functions were transferred to the recently established FAO. In 1951, FAOs headquarters were moved from Washington, D. C, the agency is directed by the Conference of Member Nations, which meets every two years to review the work carried out by the organization and to Work and Budget for the next two-year period. The Conference elects a council of 49 member states that acts as a governing body, and the Director-General. Beginning in 1994, FAO underwent the most significant restructuring since its founding, to operations, streamline procedures. As a result, savings of about US$50 million, €35 million a year were realized, FAOs Regular Programme budget is funded by its members, through contributions set at the FAO Conference. The total FAO Budget planned for 2016-17 is USD2.6 billion, the voluntary contributions are expected to reach approximately US$1.6 billion in 2016-17. The world headquarters are located in Rome, in the seat of the Department of Italian East Africa. One of the most notable features of the building was the Axum Obelisk which stood in front of the agency seat and it was taken from Ethiopia by Benito Mussolinis troops in 1937 as a war chest, and returned on 18 April 2005. C. Reduce rural poverty – help the rural poor gain access to the resources and services they need – including rural employment, enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems – help to build safe and efficient food systems that support smallholder agriculture and reduce poverty and hunger in rural areas. Two fundamental areas of work – gender and governance - are fully integrated in the strategic objective action plans. In 1996, FAO organised the World Food Summit, attended by 112 Heads or Deputy Heads of State, the Summit concluded with the signing of the Rome Declaration, which established the goal of halving the number of people who suffer from hunger by the year 2015
Food and Agriculture Organization
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Lester Bowles Pearson presiding at a plenary session of the founding conference of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. October 1945
Food and Agriculture Organization
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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization
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FAO headquarters in
Rome.
Food and Agriculture Organization
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José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director General
39.
UNESCO
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Paris. It is the heir of the League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members. Most of its offices are cluster offices covering three or more countries, national and regional offices also exist. UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programs, education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. UNESCO and its mandate for international cooperation can be traced back to a League of Nations resolution on 21 September 1921, on 18 December 1925, the International Bureau of Education began work as a non-governmental organization in the service of international educational development. However, the work of predecessor organizations was largely interrupted by the onset of World War II. On 30 October 1943, the necessity for an organization was expressed in the Moscow Declaration, agreed upon by China, the United Kingdom, the United States. This was followed by the Dumbarton Oaks Conference proposals of 9 October 1944, a prominent figure in the initiative for UNESCO was Rab Butler, the Minister of Education for the United Kingdom. At the ECO/CONF, the Constitution of UNESCO was introduced and signed by 37 countries, the Preparatory Commission operated between 16 November 1945, and 4 November 1946—the date when UNESCOs Constitution came into force with the deposit of the twentieth ratification by a member state. The first General Conference took place between 19 November to 10 December 1946, and elected Dr. Julian Huxley to Director-General and this change in governance distinguished UNESCO from its predecessor, the CICI, in how member states would work together in the organizations fields of competence. In 1956, the Republic of South Africa withdrew from UNESCO claiming that some of the organizations publications amounted to interference in the racial problems. South Africa rejoined the organization in 1994 under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, UNESCOs early work in the field of education included the pilot project on fundamental education in the Marbial Valley, Haiti, started in 1947. This project was followed by missions to other countries, including, for example. In 1948, UNESCO recommended that Member States should make free primary education compulsory, in 1990, the World Conference on Education for All, in Jomtien, Thailand, launched a global movement to provide basic education for all children, youths and adults. Ten years later, the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, UNESCOs early activities in culture included, for example, the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960. The purpose of the campaign was to move the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to keep it from being swamped by the Nile after construction of the Aswan Dam, during the 20-year campaign,22 monuments and architectural complexes were relocated. This was the first and largest in a series of campaigns including Mohenjo-daro, Fes, Kathmandu, Borobudur, the organizations work on heritage led to the adoption, in 1972, of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Committee was established in 1976 and the first sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978, since then important legal instruments on cultural heritage and diversity have been adopted by UNESCO member states in 2003 and 2005
UNESCO
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UNESCO offices in
Brasília
UNESCO
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UNESCO
UNESCO
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UNESCO Institute for Water Education in
Delft
UNESCO
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The Garden of Peace, UNESCO headquarters, Paris. Donated by the Government of Japan, this garden was designed by American-Japanese sculptor artist Isamu Noguchi in 1958 and installed by Japanese gardener Toemon Sano.
40.
World Health Organization
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The World Health Organization is a specialised agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948, headquartered in Geneva, the WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor, the Health Organization, was an agency of the League of Nations, the constitution of the World Health Organization had been signed by 61 countries on 22 July 1946, with the first meeting of the World Health Assembly finishing on 24 July 1948. It incorporated the Office international dhygiène publique and the League of Nations Health Organization, since its creation, it has played a leading role in the eradication of smallpox. The WHO is responsible for the World Health Report, an international publication on health, the worldwide World Health Survey. The head of WHO is Margaret Chan, the 2014/2015 proposed budget of the WHO is about US$4 billion. About US$930 million are to be provided by member states with a further US$3 billion to be from voluntary contributions, after failing to get a resolution passed on the subject, Alger Hiss, the Secretary General of the conference, recommended using a declaration to establish such an organisation. Dr. Sze and other delegates lobbied and a declaration passed calling for a conference on health. The use of the world, rather than international, emphasised the truly global nature of what the organisation was seeking to achieve. The constitution of the World Health Organization was signed by all 51 countries of the United Nations and it thus became the first specialised agency of the United Nations to which every member subscribed. Its constitution formally came into force on the first World Health Day on 7 April 1948, the first meeting of the World Health Assembly finished on 24 July 1948, having secured a budget of US$5 million for the 1949 year. Andrija Stampar was the Assemblys first president, and G. Brock Chisholm was appointed Director-General of WHO and its first priorities were to control the spread of malaria, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections, and to improve maternal and child health, nutrition and environmental hygiene. Its first legislative act was concerning the compilation of statistics on the spread. The logo of the World Health Organization features the Rod of Asclepius as a symbol for healing, in 1947 the WHO established an epidemiological information service via telex, and by 1950 a mass tuberculosis inoculation drive using the BCG vaccine was under way. In 1955, the eradication programme was launched, although it was later altered in objective. 1965 saw the first report on diabetes mellitus and the creation of the International Agency for Research on Cancer. In 1958, Viktor Zhdanov, Deputy Minister of Health for the USSR, called on the World Health Assembly to undertake an initiative to eradicate smallpox. At this point,2 million people were dying from smallpox every year, in 1966, WHO moved into its headquarters building
World Health Organization
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Three former directors of the
Global Smallpox Eradication Programme read the news that smallpox had been globally eradicated, 1980
World Health Organization
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World Health Organization
World Health Organization
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WHO Headquarters in Geneva
World Health Organization
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Demonstration on
Chernobyl disaster day near WHO in
Geneva
41.
International Monetary Fund
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The International Monetary Fund is an international organization headquartered in Washington, D. C. It now plays a role in the management of balance of payments difficulties. Countries contribute funds to a pool through a system from which countries experiencing balance of payments problems can borrow money. As of 2016, the fund had SDR477 billion, the rationale for this is that private international capital markets function imperfectly and many countries have limited access to financial markets. The IMF provides alternate sources of financing and this assistance was meant to prevent the spread of international economic crises. The IMF was also intended to help mend the pieces of the economy after the Great Depression. As well, to provide investments for economic growth and projects such as infrastructure. The IMFs role was altered by the floating exchange rates post-1971. It shifted to examining the economic policies of countries with IMF loan agreements to determine if a shortage of capital was due to economic fluctuations or economic policy, the IMF also researched what types of government policy would ensure economic recovery. Rather than maintaining a position of oversight of only exchange rates and their role became a lot more active because the IMF now manages economic policy rather than just exchange rates. In addition, the IMF negotiates conditions on lending and loans under their policy of conditionality, nonconcessional loans, which include interest rates, are provided mainly through Stand-By Arrangements, the Flexible Credit Line, the Precautionary and Liquidity Line, and the Extended Fund Facility. The IMF provides emergency assistance via the Rapid Financing Instrument to members facing urgent balance-of-payments needs, the IMF is mandated to oversee the international monetary and financial system and monitor the economic and financial policies of its member countries. This activity is known as surveillance and facilitates international cooperation, the responsibilities changed from those of guardian to those of overseer of members’ policies. In 1995 the International Monetary Fund began work on data dissemination standards with the view of guiding IMF member countries to disseminate their economic and financial data to the public. The executive board approved the SDDS and GDDS in 1996 and 1997 respectively, the system is aimed primarily at statisticians and aims to improve many aspects of statistical systems in a country. It is also part of the World Bank Millennium Development Goals, some countries initially used the GDDS, but later upgraded to SDDS. The IMF does require collateral from countries for loans but also requires the government seeking assistance to correct its macroeconomic imbalances in the form of policy reform, if the conditions are not met, the funds are withheld. The concept of conditionality was introduced in a 1952 Executive Board decision, conditionality is associated with economic theory as well as an enforcement mechanism for repayment
International Monetary Fund
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IMF "Headquarters 1" in Washington, D.C.
International Monetary Fund
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Coat of arms
International Monetary Fund
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The Gold Room within the
Mount Washington Hotel where the
Bretton Woods Conference attendees signed the agreements creating the IMF and
World Bank
International Monetary Fund
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First page of the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund, 1 March 1946. Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs archives
42.
International Civil Aviation Organization
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The International Civil Aviation Organization, is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of air transport to ensure safe. Its headquarters are located in the Quartier International of Montreal, Quebec, ICAO defines the protocols for air accident investigation followed by transport safety authorities in countries signatory to the Convention on International Civil Aviation. The Air Navigation Commission is the body within ICAO. The Commission is composed of 19 Commissioners, nominated by the ICAOs contracting states, Commissioners serve as independent experts, who although nominated by their states, do not serve as state or political representatives. The development of Aviation Standards and Recommended Practices is done under the direction of the ANC through the process of ICAO Panels. Once approved by the Commission, standards are sent to the Council, the forerunner to ICAO was the International Commission for Air Navigation. It held its first convention in 1903 in Berlin, Germany, at the second convention in 1906, also held in Berlin,27 countries attended. The third convention, held in London in 1912 allocated the first radio callsigns for use by aircraft, ICAN continued to operate until 1945. Fifty-two countries signed the Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention, in Chicago, Illinois, on 7 December 1944. Under its terms, a Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization was to be established, accordingly, PICAO began operating on 6 June 1945, replacing ICAN. The 26th country ratified the Convention on 5 March 1947 and, consequently PICAO was disestablished on 4 April 1947 and replaced by ICAO, in October 1947, ICAO became an agency of the United Nations linked to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. In April 2013 Qatar offered to serve as the new permanent seat of the Organization, according to the Globe and Mail, Qatars move was at least partly motivated by the pro-Israel foreign policy of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Approximately one month later, Qatar withdrew its bid after a proposal to the ICAOs governing council to move the ICAO triennial conference to Doha was defeated by a vote of 22–14. The 9th edition of the Convention on International Civil Aviation includes modifications from 1948 up to year 2006, ICAO refers to its current edition of the Convention as the Statute, and designates it as ICAO Document 7300/9. The Convention has 19 Annexes that are listed by title in the article Convention on International Civil Aviation, as of March 2016, there are 191 ICAO members, consisting of 190 of the 193 UN members, plus the Cook Islands. Liechtenstein has delegated Switzerland to implement the treaty to make it applicable in the territory of Liechtenstein, Taiwan attended the 38th Session of the ICAO Assembly in 2013, but in 2016 was denied such an invitation, despite expressions of support from the United States for Taiwan to participate. However, the Republic of China under the name of Chinese Taipei is a member of International Air Transport Association, the Council of ICAO is elected by the Assembly every 3 years and consists of 36 members elected in 3 categories
International Civil Aviation Organization
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ICAO World Headquarters,
Montreal,
Quebec,
Canada
International Civil Aviation Organization
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International Civil Aviation Organization
43.
International Maritime Organization
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The IMO was established in Geneva in 1948 and came into force ten years later, meeting for the first time in 1959. Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, the IMO has 172 Member States, IMO is governed by an assembly of members and is financially administered by a council of members elected from the assembly. The work of IMO is conducted through five committees and these are supported by technical subcommittees, other UN organisations may observe the proceedings of the IMO. Observer status is granted to qualified non-governmental organisations, IMO is supported by a permanent secretariat of employees who are representative of the organisations members. Hitherto such international conventions had been initiated piecemeal, notably the Safety of Life at Sea Convention, the first meetings of the newly formed IMCO were held in London in 1959. More recently SOLAS has been amended to bring a focus on maritime security through the International Ship. The IMO has also increased its focus on air emissions from ships, in January 1959, IMO began to maintain and promote the 1954 OILPOL Convention. Under the guidance of IMO, the convention was amended in 1962,1969, as oil trade and industry developed, many people in the industry began to recognize a need for further improvements in regards to oil pollution prevention at sea. Among other things, the accident forced the industry and public to question the efficacy of standing regulations. This incident prompted a series of new conventions, IMO held an emergency session of its Council to deal with the need to readdress regulations pertaining to maritime pollution. In 1969, the IMO Assembly decided to host a gathering in 1973 dedicated to this issue. The goal at hand was to develop an international agreement for controlling general environmental contamination by ships out at sea. During the next few years IMO brought to the forefront a series of measures designed to prevent large ship accidents and it also detailed how to deal with the environmental threat caused by routine ship duties such as the cleaning of oil cargo tanks or the disposal of engine room wastes. Interestingly enough in terms of tonnage the afore-mentioned was a problem than accidental pollution. The most significant thing to come out of conference was the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships,1973. It covers not only accidental and operational oil pollution but also different types of pollution by chemicals, goods in packaged form, sewage, garbage, the original MARPOL was signed on 17 February 1973, but did not come into force due to lack of ratifications. The current convention is a combination of 1973 Convention and the 1978 Protocol and it entered into force on 2 October 1983. As of May 2013,152 states, representing 99.2 per cent of the worlds shipping tonnage, are involved in the convention, in 1983 the IMO established the World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden
International Maritime Organization
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IMO headquarters in London
International Maritime Organization
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International Maritime Organization
44.
International Telecommunication Union
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ITU, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a member of the United Nations Development Group. ITU has been an intergovernmental public-private partnership organization since its inception, ITU was formed in 1865, in Paris, at the International Telegraph Convention, this makes it one of the oldest intergovernmental organizations in the world. ITU became a United Nations specialized agency in 1947, the ITU comprises three sectors, each managing a different aspect of the matters handled by the Union, as well as ITU Telecom. The sectors were created during the restructuring of ITU at its 1992 Plenipotentiary Conference, radiocommunication Established in 1927 as the International Radio Consultative Committee or CCIR, this sector manages the international radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbit resources. In 1992, the CCIR became the ITU-R, Standardization Standardization was the original purpose of ITU since its inception. Established in 1956 as the International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee or CCITT, in 1993, the CCITT became the ITU-T. Development Established in 1992, this sector helps spread equitable, sustainable and affordable access to information and communication technologies, ITU Telecom ITU Telecom organizes major events for the worlds ICT community. A permanent General Secretariat, headed by the Secretary General, manages the work of the Union. The basic texts of the ITU are adopted by the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, the ITU is headed by a Secretary-General, who is elected to a four-year term by the member states at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference. On 23 October 2014 Houlin Zhao was elected 19th Secretary-General of the ITU at the Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan and his four-year mandate started on 1 January 2015, and he was formally inaugurated on 15 January 2015. There are 193 Member States of the ITU, which are all UN member states, the most recent member state to join the ITU is South Sudan, which became a member on 14 July 2011. The Republic of China was blocked from membership by the Peoples Republic of China, palestine was admitted as an observer in 2010. The Summit was held as two conferences in 2003 and 2005 in Geneva and Tunis, respectively, with the aim of bridging the digital divide, in December 2012, the ITU facilitated The World Conference on International Telecommunications 2012 in Dubai. WCIT-12 was a conference to address International Telecommunications Regulations, the international rules for telecommunications. The previous conference to update the Regulations was held in Melbourne in 1988, in August 2012, ITU called for a public consultation on a draft document ahead of the conference. Telecommunications ministers from 193 countries attended the conference in Dubai, the current regulatory structure was based on voice telecommunications, when the Internet was still in its infancy. In 1988, telecommunications operated under regulated monopolies in most countries, as the Internet has grown, organizations such as ICANN have come into existence to manage key resources such as Internet addresses and Domain Names. Some outside the United States believe that the United States exerts too much influence over the governance of the Internet, current proposals look to take into account the prevalence of data communications
International Telecommunication Union
International Telecommunication Union
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International Telecommunication Union
International Telecommunication Union
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International Telecommunication Union – anniversary 125 years. Post of USSR, 1990.
45.
Universal Postal Union
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The Universal Postal Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration, the Postal Operations Council and it also oversees the Telematics and EMS cooperatives. Each member agrees to the terms for conducting international postal duties. The UPUs headquarters are located in Bern, Switzerland, french is the official language of the UPU. English was added as a language in 1994. The majority of the UPUs documents and publications – including its flagship magazine, prior to the establishment of the UPU, each country had to prepare a separate postal treaty with other nations it wished to carry international mail to or from. In some cases, senders would have to calculate postage for each leg of a journey, to simplify the complexity of this system, the United States called for an International Postal Congress in 1863. This led Heinrich von Stephan, Royal Prussian and later German Minister for Posts and it is currently the third oldest international organization after the Rhine Commission and the ITU. The UPU was created in 1874, initially under the name General Postal Union, four years later, the name was changed to Universal Postal Union. The UPU provides that stamps of nations are accepted for the entire international route. Toward the end of the century, the UPU issued rules concerning stamp design. After the foundation of the United Nations, the UPU became an agency of the UN in 1948. In 1969, the UPU introduced a new system of payment where fees were payable between countries according to the difference in the weight of mail between them. These fees were called terminal dues, ultimately, this new system was fairer when traffic was heavier in one direction than the other. As a matter of example, in 2012, terminal dues for transit from China to the USA was 0.635 SDR/kg, as this affected the cost of the delivery of periodicals, the UPU devised a new threshold system, which it later implemented in 1991. The system sets separate letter and periodical rates for countries which receive at least 150 tonnes of mail annually, for countries with less mail, the original flat rate is still maintained. The United States has negotiated a separate terminal dues formula with thirteen European countries that includes a rate per piece plus a rate per kilogram, the UPU also operates the system of International Reply Coupons and addresses concerns with ETOEs. Standards are important prerequisites for effective operations and for interconnecting the global network
Universal Postal Union
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In the UPU Monument (Weltpostdenkmal) in Bern, bronze and granite, by
René de Saint-Marceaux, the five continents join to transmit messages around the globe
Universal Postal Union
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Universal Postal Union
Universal Postal Union
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100 years of UPU commemorated on a US postage stamp
46.
World Meteorological Organization
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The World Meteorological Organization is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 191 Member States and Territories. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization, which was founded in 1873 and its current Secretary-General is Petteri Taalas and the President of the World Meteorological Congresss, its supreme body, is David Grimes. The Organization is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Meteorological Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations. WMO has a membership of 191 Member States and Territories as of February 2014, the Convention of the World Meteorological Organization was signed 11 October 1947 and established upon ratification on 23 March 1950. WMO became the agency of the United Nations in 1951 for meteorology, operational hydrology. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization, which was founded in 1873, the WMO hierarchy, The World Meteorological Congress, the supreme body of the Organization, determines policy. Each member state and territory is represented by a Permanent Representative with WMO when Congress meets every four years, Congress elects the President and Vice-Presidents of the Organization and members of the Executive Council, and appoints the Secretary-General. The Executive Council implements Congress decisions, the Executive Council normally hold a session at least once a year. Six Regional Associations are responsible for the coordination of meteorological, hydrological and they meet once every four years, and elect a president and vice-president. The president of regional association is an ex officio member of the Executive Council. Eight Technical Commissions are responsible for studying meteorological and hydrological operational systems, applications and they establish methodology and procedures and make recommendations to Executive Council and the World Meteorological Congress. The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General, who is appointed by the World Meteorological Congress for a term with a maximum tenure of 8 years. The Secretary-General appoints all staff, including the Deputy Secretary-General and the Assistant Secretary-General, the Secretariat currently has around 300 staff. Weather, climate and the water cycle shape almost every aspect of our lives and these powerful natural forces do not recognize national borders, thus global and regional cooperation is essential. Even the accuracy of a weather forecast relies on observations from far beyond national borders. These warnings help to save lives and to protect property. They contribute to economic planning and decision-making, and help minimize the harm that weather, climate, the first step in producing weather forecasts is to gather non-stop observations of the environment from around the world. WMO develops the standards for designing these and other observing instruments and for ensuring that the collected data are quality controlled
World Meteorological Organization
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WMO seat in
Geneva shared with the
GICHD, the
GCSP and the
Group on Earth Observations
World Meteorological Organization
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World Meteorological Organization
47.
International Fund for Agricultural Development
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The International Fund for Agricultural Development is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries. It was established as a financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. Seventy-five percent of the poor live in rural areas in developing countries. The strategic policy of IFAD is detailed in Strategic Framework for IFAD 2011–2015 and its headquarters is in Rome, Italy, and is a member of the United Nations Development Group. The President of the IFAD is Gilbert F. Houngbo from Togo, IFADs goal is to empower poor rural women and men in developing countries to achieve higher incomes and improved food security. As reflected in the framework, IFAD is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the target to halve the proportion of hungry. Underlying these objectives is IFAD’s belief that poor people must be empowered to lead their own development if poverty is to be eradicated. They must be able to have a say in the decisions and policies that affect their lives, through loans and grants, IFAD works with governments to develop and finance programmes and projects that enable rural poor people to overcome poverty themselves. Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested $12 billion, DM7.5 billion in 860 projects and this represents a total investment of about $19.6 billion. IFAD tackles poverty not only as a lender, but also as an advocate for poor people. IFAD is represented on the Leadership Council of Compact2025 by its president, membership in IFAD is open to all member states of the United Nations or its specialized agencies or the International Atomic Energy Agency. A state becomes a member of IFAD by ratifying the treaty known as the Agreement establishing the International Fund for Agricultural Development. The Governing Council is IFADs highest decision-making authority, with the Member States each represented by a governor, the Executive Board, responsible for overseeing the general operations of IFAD and approving loans and grants, is composed of 18 members and 18 alternate members. The President, who serves for a term, is IFADs chief executive officer. The current, and sixth, President of IFAD is Gilbert F. Houngbo, as of February 2015, IFAD has 176 member states. This includes 174 UN members states along with the Cook Islands, the member states are classified as follows, List A, List B, and List C. List C is further divided into sub-list C1, sub-list C2, the observers are the Holy See and European Union. The Governing Council is IFADs highest decision-making authority, each Member State is represented in the Governing Council by a Governors, Alternate Governors and any other designated advisers
International Fund for Agricultural Development
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Kanayo F. Nwanze, the current President of IFAD.
International Fund for Agricultural Development
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International Fund for Agricultural Development
48.
UNICEF
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The United Nations Childrens Fund is a United Nations programme headquartered in New York City that provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group, the Polish physician Ludwik Rajchman is widely regarded as the founder of UNICEF and served as its first chairman from 1946. On Rajchmans suggestion, the American Maurice Pate was appointed its first executive director, in 1950, UNICEFs mandate was extended to address the long-term needs of children and women in developing countries everywhere. UNICEF relies on contributions from governments and private donors, UNICEFs total income for 2008 was US$3,372,540,239, governments contribute two-thirds of the organizations resources. Private groups and some six million individuals contribute the rest through national committees and it is estimated that 92 per cent of UNICEF revenue is distributed to programme services. UNICEFs programmes emphasize developing community-level services to promote the health and well-being of children, UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 and the Prince of Asturias Award of Concord in 2006. Most of UNICEFs work is in the field, with staff in over 190 countries and territories, more than 200 country offices carry out UNICEFs mission through programmes developed with host governments. Seven regional offices provide technical assistance to country offices as needed, a 36-member executive board establishes policies, approves programmes and oversees administrative and financial plans. The executive board is made up of government representatives who are elected by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, there are national committees in 34 countries, each established as an independent local non-governmental organization. The national committees raise funds from the private sector, UNICEF is funded entirely by voluntary contributions, and the National Committees collectively raise around one-third of UNICEFs annual income. This comes through contributions from corporations, civil society organizations around six million individual donors worldwide, UNICEF is present in 191 countries and territories around the world, but not involved in nine others. Many people in developed countries first hear about UNICEFs work through the activities of one of the 36 National Committees for UNICEF, the US Fund for UNICEF is the oldest of the national committees, founded in 1947. On 19 April 2007, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg was appointed UNICEF Eminent Advocate for Children, in which role she has visited Brazil, China, and Burundi. In 2009, the British retailer Tesco used Change for Good as advertising and they went on to call on the public who have children’s welfare at heart, to consider carefully who they support when making consumer choices. As part of the agreement, FC Barcelona will wear the UNICEF logo on the front of their uniform and this was the first time a football club sponsored an organization rather than the other way around. It was also the first time in FC Barcelonas history that they have had another organizations name across the front of their uniform, in January 2007 UNICEF struck a partnership with Canadas national tent pegging team. The team was officially re-flagged as UNICEF Team Canada, its riders wear UNICEFs logo in competition, the Swedish club Hammarby IF followed the Spanish and Canadian lead on 14 April 2007, also raising funds for UNICEF and displaying the UNICEF name on their sportswear. The Danish football club Brøndby IF participated in an arrangement from 2008 to 2013
UNICEF
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UNICEF School in a box contains basic educational items for 1 teacher and 40 students
UNICEF
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UNICEF
UNICEF
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Lionel Messi wearing a Barcelona shirt showing the UNICEF logo
UNICEF
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One of the gates to the old UNICEF World Warehouse
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United Nations Industrial Development Organization
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The United Nations Industrial Development Organization, French/Spanish acronym ONUDI, is a specialized agency in the United Nations system, headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It is also a member of the United Nations Development Group, UNIDO believes that competitive and environmentally sustainable industry has a crucial role to play in accelerating economic growth, reducing poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. UNIDO thus works largely in developing countries, with governments, business associations, UNIDO was established as a UN programme in 1966 with headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and became a specialized agency of the United Nations in 1985. In 2004, UNIDO established the UNIDO Goodwill Ambassador programme, in 2009, UNIDO created a new flagship publication, Making It, Industry for Development. As of January 2017,168 States are Members of UNIDO, the estimated total volume of UNIDO operations for the biennium 2012–2013 is €460 million, the value of technical cooperation delivery in 2012 amounted to $189.2 million. UNIDOs services therefore focus on encouraging the creation of decent employment, the technical ability of developing countries to produce competitive exportable products that comply with international standards is key to their successful participation in international trade. Fundamental changes in the way societies produce and consume are indispensable for achieving global sustainable development, UNIDO therefore promotes sustainable patterns of industrial consumption and production to de-link the processes of economic growth and environmental degradation. UNIDO is a provider of services for improved industrial energy efficiency. It also assists developing countries in implementing multilateral environmental agreements and in reaching their economic. UNIDO organizes the Global Renewable Energy Forum in October 2009, the Industry Section of the Secretariat became a branch in 1959, and in 1962 it became the Industrial Development Centre, headed by a Commissioner for Industrial Development. In the aftermath, proposals for further institutionalizing industrial development-related issues within the UN were considered by various advisory groups, subsequently, the United Nations General Assembly created the UNIDO in November 1966 as a special organ of the United Nations. In January 1967, the Organization was formally established with Headquarters in Vienna, compared to the Industrial Development Centre, UNIDOs creation was intended to broaden the work of its predecessor. The setting up of UNIDO as a special organ had nonetheless been a compromise solution, the developing countries had in the first instance promoted the idea of a specialized agency with its own political decision-making governing bodies and autonomy in budgetary matters. The same position was advocated by several high-level expert groups and intergovernmental committees during the following years, an intergovernmental committee prepared a draft constitution, which was adopted in Vienna in 1979. However, the objections and doubts of industrialized countries as to the necessity of a specialized agency contributed to delaying the ratification process. All necessary formal requirements were fulfilled in 1985, and in December of the same year, during the subsequent years, UNIDO continuously expanded particularly its operational activities. As a result, Canada, the United States, and Australia subsequently withdrew from the Organization between 1993 and 1997, in addition, a weak management structure and lack of focus and integration of UNIDOs activities contributed to aggravate the crisis. UNIDOs Member States responded by adopting a stringent Business Plan on the Future Role, activities laid out in the Business Plan are based on the clear comparative advantages of UNIDO, while avoiding overlap and duplication with other multilateral institutions
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
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ONUDI in French and Spanish
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
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United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Australia
Sudan
United States
Netherlands
