The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine, The Danube Commission,

Cape Spartel Lighthouse, The Universal Telegraph Union, The Universal Postal Union,
The International Association of Geodesy

1) The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine

 Members of CCNR: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland
 After the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, Congress of Vienna
was held in order to prepare a plan for a long lasting peace in Europe.
 The commission’s legal base is the Congress of Vienna.
 The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine is the oldest international
organisation in modern history.
 The aim of CCNR is;
 1) The creation of an international river organisation,
 2) Establishment of the principle of the freedom of navigation.
 First meeting was in Mainz in 1816, in 1861 CCNR was moved to Mannheim. After
WWI and the Treaty of Versailles, the headquarters was moved to Strasbourg.

2) The Danube Commission

 The Treaty of Paris of 1856 was the peace treaty after the Crimean War which was
fought between Ottoman Empire, Britain and France against the Russian Empire.
 With the Treaty of Paris, the European Commission of the Danube was formed.
 It was founded in order to operate for two years but instead the Commission lasted 82
years until 1938.
 The CED internationalized the entrance of the Danube River from the Black Sea,
which is the three mouths of the river in the Danube Delta.
 CED had authority over Chilia in the north, Sulina in the middle and St. George in the
south.
 In 1938, with the Sinaia Agreement, Romania gained the full control of the Danube
Delta.

3) Cape Spartel Lighthouse

 Cape Spartel is a lighthouse in the North of Morocco.
 The International Commission of the Cape Spartel Lighthouse was formed in 1865.
 The convention was signed by Morocco, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Italy,
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the USA.
 The function of the International Commission of the Cape Spartel Lighthouse was to
manage, maintain and assure the neutrality of the lighthouse.
 It insured the safety of shipping through the Straits of Gibraltar and the entrance to the
Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean.

4) The Universal Telegraph Union

 International Telecommunication Union was formed in 1865 and the original name of
the organization was “International Telegraph Union”.
 It is the oldest global international organization.
 Today, it is a United Nations specialized agency.
  The main goal of the ITU was to establish standards and regulations about the
international telegraph networks.
 It made the Morse code the international telegraph alphabet.
 In 1932 International Telegraph Union and International Radiotelegraph Union joined
and became the International Telecommunication Union and in 1949, ITU joined the
United Nations as a specialized agency.
5) The Universal Postal Union
 The Universal Postal Union was established with the Treaty of Bern in 1874.
 The headquarters of UPU is in Bern, Switzerland.
 In 1948, with the foundation of the United Nations, UPU joined UN as a specialized
agency.
 The treaty provided that:
 1) There should be a uniform flat rate to mail a letter anywhere in the world
 2) Postal authorities should give equal treatment to foreign and domestic mail
 3) Each country should retain all money it has collected for international postage.
6) The International Association of Geodesy
 Geodesy is the field of science which measures and understands Earth’s geometric
shape.
 International Association of Geodesy (IAG) was founded in 1862.
 Today it is part of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics.
 IAG focuses on measuring changes in the earth’s shape, rotation and mass.