Foreign relations

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas is to apply immediately to join the International Criminal Court, senior officials said Dec. 31, after the U.N. Security Council rejected a resolution on ending the Israeli occupation.        

A treaty laying down international rules for the $85 billion dollar global arms trade went into force Dec. 24, with campaigners vowing to make sure it is strictly implemented.

For "shall", substitute "may". For example, change "countries signing this climate change treaty SHALL state how much they are going to cut their greenhouse emissions" to "countries signing this climate change treaty MAY state how much they are going to cut their emissions if they feel like it, but if they don't, hey, no problem."

Turkey has appealed the European Court of Human Rights' (ECHR) ruling that said high school students must be allowed to opt out of religious education classes, which are currently compulsory.

UN members pressed ahead Sunday with a vision for a historic pact to defeat climate change by adopting a format for national pledges to cut Earth-warming greenhouse gases.
      
At a marathon conference in Lima, they also approved a blueprint to guide negotiations for the deal due to be sealed in Paris in December 2015.
      

UNICEF's representative in Romania, Sandie Blanchet, believes that children's rights become reality not through statements, but through sustained political commitment.

BELGRADE - Serbia has still much to do in the fight against corruption, in particular in terms of creating anti-corruption mechanisms that are efficient in practice, Transparency Serbia (TS) said in a statement marking the International Anti-Corruption Day.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Turkey to pay 30,000 euros for the inadequacy of a criminal investigation carried out by domestic authorities into two missing persons, who were found dead years later, allegedly after being murdered by soldiers.

European Union insistence on a right to challenge nations about their plans for fighting climate change, in the run-up to a United Nations summit in 2015, opened a rift at U.N. climate talks in Lima on Dec. 9.

Eight Turkish universities were listed this year among the 100 top universities in the "BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings," with the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) in Ankara taking third place in the list.

ODTÜ was also named the world's 85th best university in the 2015 rankings.