Signatory Countries Research Articles

COMPREHENSIVE AND PROGRESSIVE AGREEMENT FOR TRANS – PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (TPP – 11): PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE?

The article considers the global trend towards regional trade agreements (RTA). The authors note that in addition to the common bilateral RTAs, countries conclude multilateral regional trade agreements. In particular, the article examines changes in the world economy, which occur under the influence of the mega-regional trade agreements (MRTA) formation. An example of the MRTA is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and its possible impact onRussiais discussed in the present article. The authors discuss the stages of TPP development, its goals, provisions, innovations and prospects. The article analyses an example of a country’s withdrawal from an agreement, its’ consequences and possible impact on the country itself and other signatory countries to the agreement. The article points out the differences between TPP and TPP-11. Inparticular, the article discusses the possible impact of the TPP-11 onRussia. Trade relations betweenRussiaand TPP-11 signatory countries are considered, and key markets among TPP-11 countries are identified. The article highlights the importance ofRussia's rapid response to the possible consequences of the TPP-11, including the possible conclusion of bilateral trade agreements between the EAEU, whereRussiais a member, and potential partners from TPP-11 countries.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: The Good, the Bad, and the Useless


 
 
 The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children (UNCRC), put forth in 1989, has generated a global movement in the direction of protecting and promoting children’s rights, resulting in a paradigm change in how children are perceived under the law. While the UNCRC is the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in human history, children’s fundamental right to protection continues to be violated through actions instigated by adults, such as neglect, physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, or being coerced into marriage, wartime activities, or slavery. This is largely a result of international law having no empirical legal binding; since countries are sovereign upon themselves, without domestic enforcement by each individual signatory country, there is no obligation to abide by the terms of international treaties. Applying both a philosophical and legal framework, this paper seeks to provide a critical analysis of whether or not treaties of international law, such as the Convention on the Rights of Children (UNCRC), have an unyielded potential to spark a tangible, beneficial change in the promotion of children’s rights, or if such doctrines are nothing more than glorified pieces of lip service paid to bolster the signatory country’s face value on a global level.
 
 

Potential tropical climate-based spatio-temporal grass variability

Numerous international agreements aimed at reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by signatory countries have been ratified in an attempt to combat the adverse varied impacts of climate change and promote resource use sustainability. Grass is an important resource that livestock, wildlife and human beings depend on and is largely influenced by climatic conditions. The grass in Kenya supports the key economic activities of livestock and wildlife-based tourism. This significant contribution to gross domestic product underscored the need to model the impacts of climate change on the grass for the country to promote sustainable development. The study aimed at modelling the impacts of projected climate variations on the spatial and temporal distribution of grass in the base-year (1950–2000) and the future climatic periods of the years 2050 and 2070. The spatial data was sourced from United States Geological Survey, International Livestock Research Institute, and Africover Project processed and analysed in ArcGIS, DIVA-GIS, Maxent and Map Comparison Kit softwares. The models outputs were significant with the least area under receiver-operator curve (AUC) values of 0.754. The study found out that the 2050 climate will decrease grass niche suitability by 44.99%, the unsuitable will increase by 87.01%, the grass niche suitability location will shift by 76.7% and the category areas change by 46.4%; the 2070 climatic period grass niche suitability will shrink by 55.21%, the unsuitable category increase by 106.80%, the location change will be 77.8% and the category areas will vary by 66.0%. The research concluded that the rangeland vegetation (grass) will decline and shift location in the both future climatic periods.

Enterprises Heterogeneity, Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) and the Determinants of Chinese Firms’ Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI)

This paper analyzed Chinese enterprises’ outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from the perspectives of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT) and enterprise heterogeneity. Firstly, in terms of BIT, we found that the existing literature was mainly focused on BIT and developed countries’ investment in developing countries as the research subject, and rarely discussed the role of BIT in OFDI by developing countries. In addition, in terms of enterprise heterogeneity, due to a limited dataset, the previous research could not be used to accurately understand Chinese investment’s ultimate objective, and could not be used to differentiate between differently owned enterprises. As a result, this paper uses a Multiple linear regression model to select data from Chinese foreign-investing enterprises from 2005-2016 provided by China Global Investment Tracker. We find that the signing of the BIT can promote Chinese enterprises to invest in the signatory countries. However, its role on the investment shows features differently due to the various ownership of firms. Thanks to the support of the home country system, BIT significantly promotes the foreign investment of state-owned enterprises, with little promotion for the non-state-owned enterprises.

EL SISTEMA EDUCATIVO PARAGUAYO ANTE LOS DESAFÍOS SOCIALES DEL SIGLO XXI: UNA EVOLUCIÓN HISTÓRICA HACIA EL PROGRAMA METAS EDUCATIVAS 2021

In 2011, the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education and Culture assumed the responsibility of coordinating actions and monitoring a very ambitious educational program called Educational Goals 2021: the education we want for the bicentennial generation. This article pretends to know the historical evolution of the Paraguayan educational system towards this program and analyze the progress and achievements of Paraguay, one of the signatory countries of this project. For this analysis we use national and international reports that allow us to know in detail and reliability the results of the application and development of the eleven goals of the educational program in the Paraguayan educational context. However, by extension of this article we focus on three of these eleven goals achieving very relevant results regarding the achievements and absences of the objectives of the goals analyzed. The data reflect a considerable advance in educational policies from 2011 to the present, although there are still notable shortcomings in aspects related, mainly, to the training, selection and strengthening of the teaching profession. It is necessary to point out that the educational statistical data to which we have had access was very limited since the last accessible MEC report from Paraguay is from 2011, so we had to resort to external reports.

Bridging the enforcement gap in international trade: Participation in the New York Convention on arbitration

International trade transactions come with a peculiar hazard: unlike commerce inside national borders, there are no common courts or legal jurisdictions to enforce contracts should disputes arise. Distance, language, and cultural disparities further complicate contract enforcement for international trade. A 1958 United Nations treaty, the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (NYC), addresses this enforcement gap. NYC signatory countries commit to enforce the outcomes of private arbitration between importers and exporters. This commitment makes private international arbitration a viable legal alternative for dispute resolution, supported by state enforcement through national courts. This paper explores why many countries waited decades to join the NYC despite the obvious benefits. The puzzle is framed with a model of policy adoption – how the net benefits of membership, driven by trade interactions, social contagion or peer effects and internal barriers, influence the timing of membership decisions. In the data, countries are more likely to join when their regional trade partners do. The nature of traded goods is also a strong predictor of NYC membership, as countries that specialize in contract-intensive goods join sooner on average, relative to producers of undifferentiated commodities.

CAFTA and the Rural Economies of Central America: A Conceptual Framework for Policy and Program Recommendations

The net benefits of CAFTA and their distribution among sectors of the economy and social groups are major concerns of policy makers in Central America. The objective of the Bank’s support to Central America is to assist in the design of policies that maximize total net benefits while improving the welfare of the poorer segments of society, the majority of whom reside in rural areas. The purpose of this study is to provide a conceptual framework in order to identify policies that will meet these objectives. It is important to note that CAFTA has not been ratified yet by all congresses of the signatory countries, but throughout this paper we assume that all will ratify CAFTA as it stands today.

Gravity Estimations with FDI Bilateral Data: Potential FDI Effects of Deep Preferential Trade Agreements

This study employs a structural gravity approach to analyse the impact of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on bilateral FDI. We use the UNCTAD global database on bilateral FDI stocks and flows. To control for the heterogeneous nature of PTAs we employ three different indicators of PTA depth. We find that ’deeper’ or comprehensive PTAs (e.g. including provisions on investment, public procurement and intellectual property rights provisions) have a significant positive impact on bilateral FDI between partners. For instance, we estimate that the deepest PTA (with an index of seven in the DESTA database) is expected to increase bilateral FDI stocks between signatory countries by around 54%. We also show the importance and policy-relevant information contained in the structurally estimated inward multilateral resistance terms (IMR). We find that strictly domestic policies have a significant impact on the IMR, thus explaining the variation in the national barriers to FDI. As an example, we analyse the potential impact on foreign direct investment of the economic co-operation agreement signed by the Pacific Alliance countries (Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru) in 2012.

Utilization of big data analytics in socio-economic impact evaluation on climate response measures

For the past decade, the conversation about climate change has been gaining prominence in the social and economic discourse in Malaysia. This is evident when Malaysia responded positively to the Paris Agreement by committing to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions by 45% by 2030 in relation to the country’s 2005 GDP. The Paris Agreement is a multilateral environmental agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that compel all signatory countries to focus on greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in year 2020 as part of the global response in addressing climate change threats. Currently, UNFCCC has acknowledged the need to establish a forum to address the impact of response measures implemented by countries that will be undergoing decarbonizing development in terms of economic diversification and just transition (creation of decent and quality job). This paper will explore the challenges and opportunities to utilise big data analytics in socio-economic models when assessing the impact of a country’s response measures policy implementation.

From paid holidays to mass tourism: a typological evolution

The 1919 ratification of the 48-hour working week by the Organization Internationale du Travail [International Labor Organization], created by the signatory countries of the Treaty of Versailles, raises a new challenge to industrialized society: the organization of workers’ free time. Divided the day into “three eights” — eight hours of work, eight hours of rest and eight hours of sleep — the social framework of leisure is understood as a moral duty of the state. This issue takes on a never before considered dimension with the attention given to the instrumental use of popular recreation by European totalitarian regimes and its centralization in organisms of a political and ideological character. Leisure, in this context, would work as a privileged area of indoctrination and diffusion of the nationalist rhetoric that supports the construction of fascist dictatorships. But the recognition of the necessity to organize leisure was not restricted to totalitarian states, nor was it an exclusively political and/or social issue.

ВИШЕГРАДСЬКА ГРУПА: ІСТОРІЯ СТВОРЕННЯ ТА ДОСВІД СПІВПРАЦІ З УКРАЇНОЮ В КОНТЕКСТІ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОЇ ІНТЕГРАЦІЇ

The article is devoted to the history of the creation and functioning of the Visegrad Group as a regional entity, which not only did not cease activities after achieving the goal of Atlantic and European integration, but also successfully develops it, already being a member of NATO and the European Union. Based on the use of a broad documentary framework, in particular, protocols and declarations as a result of meetings of various levels within the framework of the Visegrad Group, analyzed and identifies the concrete stages of its development and interaction with Ukraine in a wide range of components that form the essence of Euro-Atlantic integration. On concrete examples, it was illustrated that Ukraine has always been in the field of key interests of the Visegrad Four, received effective help and support from her side in a variety of forms. It is not just about practical issues of regional cooperation and security, but also about the many aspects of the value and civilization dimension. The participating countries of the Visegrad Group, having become the initiators of the “B4 + Ukraine” cooperation format, have never stood apart from the most important processes and transitional stages, through which Ukraine passed on its way to becoming and self-determination. The opinion is upheld, that the experience gained by the member countries of the Visegrad format is relevant and useful for Ukraine and today on the way of implementing its Euro-Atlantic integration aspirations. Despite the existing difficulties both within the European Union and between Ukraine and individual signatory countries of the Visegrad Declaration of 1991, cooperation with Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary is the most effective communication platform for intensifying the broad dialogue between Ukraine and European Union.

Clinical Practice Guidelines for Assessment and Management of intellectual disability.

Mental retardation is a developmental disorder and is associated with significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviors. Currently, it is widely referred to as “intellectual disability (ID)” and “intellectual developmental disorders (IDDs).” In India, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (2016) has introduced the term “intellectual disability” in the place of “mental retardation.” However, India being a signatory country to the World Health Organization (WHO), where the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) guidelines are adopted in the clinical practice, the term “mental retardation” is still in clinical use (The WHO Working Group on the Classification of Intellectual Disabilities has recommended replacing the term “mental retardation” with “IDD” in ICD-11 [Salvador-Carulla et al., 2011]. Thus, both the terms, intellectual disability and mental retardation, are in use in India. Despite variation in the terminology and the differences in the criteria for diagnosis (e.g., ICD-10; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition [DSM-5]) and assessment of disability (as notified in the guidelines in January 2018, which are based on the RPD Act), it is commonly agreed that significant impairments in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior during the developmental period is the hallmark of the condition [Table 1]. Table 1 Terminology and conceptual issues related to intellectual disability among different diagnostic systems

Plant Protection Services in Nepal: A Discourse and Assessment

Agricultural production has been challenged by various biotic and abiotic factors in Nepal. Losses incurred by different insect pests and diseases are remarkable. As a counter measure, Government of Nepal has implemented various activities through extension, research and academic institutions. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has been the central approach of plant protection in Nepal. It was initiated in 1997 with an aim to reduce the excessive and injudicious use of chemical pesticides to enhance the crop production, paying due attention on gender mainstreaming, and social inclusion. Besides, plant clinic program is gaining popularity in Nepal to provide plant health extension advisory services. Being a signatory country of Rotterdam Convention and Stockholm Convention, Nepal has imposed ban on sixteen different types of chemical pesticides including persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Botanicals and bio-pesticides are also used in agriculture to manage pests and diseases of crops in Nepal. So far, different 2275 pesticides have been registered by Pesticide Management and Registration Division (PMRD). National Plant Quarantine Program has been regulating the risks of entry, establishment and spread of harmful pest and plant diseases. Until now, quarantine pest of 18 commodities are identified. Strong research back up and coordination among the working partners are realized at wider level. This article assesses the status of the plant protection services and find way forward for strategic implementation of the plant protection services in Nepal.

Dodgy fossils: international legislation and the meaning of 'cultural property'

In our small world of palaeontology, it has ended friendships and ruined careers. Important fossils are lost to science, or are in limbo. In the wider world, people get shot or imprisoned. Through it, fortunes are made by rich people in the West, while peasant farmers in the South lose the fortunes they never had. 'It' is UNESCO 1970: The Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. This paper looks back at the ancestry of UNESCO 1970, to suggest that its ethically inspired progenitors probably would not have wanted it to turn out the way it did. The wrong turn seems to have been in the ambiguity (perhaps intentional, certainly not articulated) of the meaning of 'cultural property' in the 1970 Convention. Merryman (1986) reviewed 'cultural property'; he explained that it has two almostopposite meanings, whose complex bases, in semantics, nationalism and money, are explored in this paper. I ruminate on how differently the word 'culture' might be understood in the minds of legislators (and politicians) in the Signatory Countries to the 1970 Convention, and speculate about how their interpretations might, from one point of view, be inadvertently ('culturally', 'lost in translation') mistaken and how, from another point of view, they might coincide neatly with national interests. Maybe UNESCO 1970 itself did turn out the way its authors intended. The purpose of the Convention's Articles was to police international trade in national and personal property, arguably in support of the principles of capitalism, as variously applied in the signatory counties - and now, nearly 50 years on, globally. Finally, I question whether fossils should be in the Convention at all; I ask: except possibly for fossil hominins, whose 'cultural' property are they?

O CASAMENTO DAS PESSOAS COM DEFICIÊNCIA MENTAL NO BRASIL: Identidade, cultura e família.

As pessoas com deficiência mental podem exercer, por si só, os atos da vida civil de natureza existencial, incluindo o direito ao casamento, baseado nas normas do Estatuto da Pessoa com Deficiência, baseado no tratado internacional de Direitos Humanos das pessoas com deficiência – carta de Nova Iorque – aprovado com status de norma constitucional. O tratado determinou a incorporação junto aos ordenamentos jurídicos internos dos países signatários de conquistas culturais e identitárias acerca dos Direitos das pessoas com deficiência. Assim, apresenta-se discussão sobre o tema na vertente jurídico-dogmática, com raciocínio hipotético-dedutivo, e investigação jurídico-descritivo e jurídico-interpretativo.

Indonesia Membership on Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO): Cost and Benefit Analysis

Indonesia with seven other countries, namely Bangladesh, China, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, and Thailand are the signatory countries of APSCO Convention, on October 28th, 2005. APSCO is space coopeation organization outside the United Nations system for the Asia Pacific region, initiated by the People’s Republic of China. To date, from the eight signatory countries, only Indonesia has not ratified yet and has not become a full member of APSCO. This paper examines cost and benefit of the Indonesia membership on APSCO. The methods used are quantitative and qualitative method. While the analysis used approaches related to contribution of cost to provided and benefits to be received by Indonesia as well as the national interest mentioned in Presidential Decree No. 64/1999 on Indonesian Membership and Indonesian Government Contributions to International Organizations. From the study, it was found that by ratifying the Convention and following APSCO activities optimally, the benefits will be receive by Indonesia greater than contribution given to APSCO. Similarry, the joining of Indonesia in APSCO will also provide substansial benefit for the national interest, especially for politic, economic, international peace and security, humanity, and others as well as enhancing better relationship among countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Measurement of legacy and emerging flame retardants in indoor dust from a rural village (Kopawa) in Nepal: Implication for source apportionment and health risk assessment

Under the Stockholm Convention, signatory countries are obliged to direct source inventories, find current sources, and provide ecological monitoring evidence to guarantee that the encompassing levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are declining. However, such monitoring of different types of POPs are to a great degree constrained in most developing countries including Nepal and are primarily confined to suspected source area/ densely populated regions. In this study, 9 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), 2 dechlorane plus (DPs), 6 novel brominated flame retardants (NBFRs) and 8 organophosphate ester flame retardants (OPFRs) were investigated in indoor dust from a rural area (Kopawa) in Nepal in order to evaluate their occurrence/level, profile, spatial distribution and their sources. Additionally, health risk exposure was estimated to anticipate the possible health risk to the local population. The results showed that OPFRs was the most abundant FR measured in the dust. The concentration of ∑8OPFRs was about 2, 3 and 4 orders of magnitude higher than the ∑6NBFRs, ∑9PBDEs, and ∑2DPs, respectively. Tris (methylphenyl) phosphate (TMPP) and Tris (2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (TEHP) were the most abundant OPFRs analyzed in the dust; while decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) exceeded among NBFRs. Likewise, 2,2′,3,3′,4,4′,5,5′,6,6′-decabromodiphenylether (BDE-209) was the most identified chemical among PBDEs. The total organic carbon (TOC) content in dust was significantly and positively connected with octa-BDEs (Rho = 0.615, p < 0.01), BTBPE (Rho = 0.733, p < 0.01), TPHP (Rho = 0.621, p < 0.01), TEHP (Rho = 0.560, p < 0.01) and TMPPs (Rho = 0.550, p < 0.01), while black carbon (BC) was either weakly related or not related, suggesting little or no impact of BC in the distribution of FRs. Principal component analysis indicated the contribution from commercial penta-, octa- and deca-BDEs formulation, the adhesive substance, food packaging and paints, and degradation of BDE-209 as the essential sources of FRs. Health risk exposure estimates showed that dermal absorption via dust as the primary route of FRs intake. The estimated daily exposure of PBDEs, NBFRs and OPFRs were 2–10 orders of magnitude lower than their corresponding reference dose (RfD), suggesting insignificant risk. However, other routes such as inhalation and dietary intake might still be significant in the case of Kopawa which should be tested in future.

Free Trade Agreements and Import-import Substitution Effect Evidence from a CGE Analysis: The Case of EU-Korea and EU-Japan FTAs

Since the failure of the Doha Round, we have observed an increase in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). These FTAs modify the market access conditions not only for the signatory countries’ companies, but also indirectly for companies of third parties to the agreement, since their exports become more expensive vis-a-vis their competitors’ benefitting from the FTA. With the FTA Road Map drawn in 2003, the Republic of Korea actively pursued an FTA strategy in trade policy; in 2011 it became the first Asian country to sign an FTA with the EU. In December 2017 Japan also finalised an FTA with the EU. Using a CGE model, implemented through GTAP, I show that Korea’s decision to sign an FTA with the EU before Japan could support Korea’s exports to the EU in the first scenario (I), where only the EU-Korea FTA is in force, and safeguard its exports from the effects of enforcing the EU-Japan FTA in the second scenario (II). On the other hand, Korea’s exports would have decreased if the EU-Japan FTA had been implemented before the EU-Korea FTA. The simulated scenarios take account of both the impact of different Armington elasticities and different actionability of NTMs. Keywords: EU-Korea FTA, EU-Japan FTA, CGE model, Armington elasticity, actionability of NTMs.

Estimation of Forest Carbon Stocks for National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Reporting in South Korea

The development of country-specific emission factors in relation to the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector has the potential to improve national greenhouse gas inventory systems. Forests are carbon sinks in the AFOLU that can play an important role in mitigating global climate change. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), signatory countries must report forest carbon stocks, and the changes within them, using emission factors from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or from country-specific values. This study was conducted to estimate forests carbon stocks and to complement and improve the accuracy of national greenhouse gas inventory reporting in South Korea. We developed country-specific emissions factors and estimated carbon stocks and their changes using the different approaches and methods described by the IPCC (IPCCEF: IPCC default emission factors, CSFT: country-specific emission factors by forest type, and CSSP: country-specific emission factors by species). CSFT returned a result for carbon stocks that was 1.2 times higher than the value using IPCCEF. Using CSSP, CO2 removal was estimated to be 60,648 Gg CO2 per year with an uncertainty of 22%. Despite a reduction in total forest area, forests continued to store carbon and absorb CO2, owing to differences in the carbon storage capacities of different forest types and tree species. The results of this study will aid estimations of carbon stock changes and CO2 removal by forest type or species, and help to improve the completeness and accuracy of the national greenhouse gas inventory. Furthermore, our results provide important information for developing countries implementing Tier 2, the level national greenhouse gas inventory systems recommended by the IPCC.

Study of combustion in CO2-Capturing semi-closed Brayton cycle conditions

The implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, the directive 2018/410 of the European Union and other similar assessments, have placed greater demands related to the control of carbon dioxide emissions on the governments of the signatory countries. This fact has aroused interest not only in renewable energies, but also in new methods to produce power from fossil fuels without releasing greenhouse effect gases to the atmosphere. Within these new power generation methods, the ones where the combustion is performed with pure oxygen are particularly interesting, in order to reuse existing combined-cycle machinery. This article performs an analysis of combustion's phenomenology when it is achieved in conditions derived from semi-closed cycles with oxy-combustion for CO2 capture. The study was performed using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) methods for reacting flows. Chemical reactions were modeled using the detailed GRI-Mech 3.0 mechanism and were taken into account in the CFDs using the Eddy Dissipation Concept model (EDC). The effect of different pressure ratios of the compression stage was analyzed. It was found that the coflow composition, apart from modifying the temperature field, also has an important impact on the boundary conditions that the High Pressure Turbine (HPT) may found at its inlet.