Agreements for Peace, Security and Shared Rules, 1945 to 2016

Signed on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, it took effect at 09:25 that day and formalized the surrender of Japan. Representatives of Japan and of the Allied nations, including the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands and New Zealand, signed it.

Adopted at Rio de Janeiro on 2 September 1947 and in force from 3 December 1948, the Rio Treaty rests on one principle: an attack against one signatory is treated as an attack against all. It began with 23 signatories, and Cuba has been suspended from it since 1962.

Signed on 27 July 1953 by commanders for the United Nations Command, the Korean People's Army and the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, it halted the fighting at 22:00 local time that day. It was meant to hold until a final peaceful settlement could be reached, which is why it is an armistice and not a peace treaty.

Signed in Mexico City on 14 February 1967, it made Latin America and the Caribbean the world's first nuclear-weapon-free zone in a populated region. Signatories pledged not to test, manufacture, acquire or deploy nuclear weapons, and an agency was created to verify compliance.

Opened for signature in 1968 and in force from 1970, the treaty commits nuclear-armed parties not to transfer weapons technology and non-nuclear parties not to acquire it, while guaranteeing access to peaceful nuclear technology. It has become the most widely joined arms control agreement in history.

Signed on 14 June 1985 near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community. It proposed to abolish border checks gradually, with measures such as vehicles crossing without stopping and harmonized visa policies.

Concluded in February 1992 by the twelve member states of the European Communities, formally as the Treaty on European Union. It created European Union citizenship alongside national citizenship, laid out the path to a single currency and added common foreign and security policy.

Adopted in Kyoto on 11 December 1997 and in force from 16 February 2005, it extended the 1992 climate convention by setting binding greenhouse gas targets for industrialized parties only. Canada withdrew effective December 2012, citing the absence of the largest emitters from its structure.

Signed in Belfast on 10 April 1998, it is a pair of linked agreements: a Multi-Party Agreement among most Northern Irish parties and a British-Irish Agreement between the two governments. It ended most of the violence of the Troubles and set up devolved power sharing between unionist and nationalist parties.

Adopted by 196 parties near Paris in 2015 and opened for signature in 2016, it aims to hold warming well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol it sets no binding national targets, relying on nationally determined contributions reviewed every five years.