| Step | Instruction | Additional Notes | |
| 1 | Check the treaty in the IEA database again. If an amendment go to the lineage to see related accord, this will help later when entering information in. | Important: sometimes if you go to the lineage link you may find the amendment dated incorrectly make note of that, particularly if the dates are very far from what they should be. It is also helpful to go in and read the texts if the name seems close to the agreement you are looking at. If the agreement is there delete it from list. | |
| 2 | Check agreement again by going to the agreement link | If the agreement appears to be multiple amendments make sure they are all distinct amendments to the agreement (sometimes countries will make multiple amendments at once) | |
| 3 | Check if it’s a new agreement or an amendment to an older agreement. In both cases, fill out columns A-T, filling out all required information, highlighted in yellow, and any applicable information, highlighted in pink. See boxes below for additional information. | | |
| | Sig_date, Sig_place, EIF_date | Correspond to information gathered previously, if you do not have it you should be able to find it on the secretariat website/linked website. Usually on the agreement before the signatures | |
| | Term_date, Term_type, Termby | Only used if the agreement/amendment has been terminated | |
| | Treaty_name, Alternative_name | Treaty name, look at treaty names in the IEA database. Name should follow the same format as other names that appear in the database. Column J is useful if there are any alternative names for the agreement | |
| | Lineage, Sequence | New Agreement: lineage=new lineage, and sequence starts at 100 | Amendment: lineage is the lineage of the related accord and sequence number is sequential to the most recent amendment before this new one. I.e. if last amendment was 100.01, this would be 100.02 |
| | RelatedAccord_Name, RelatedAccord_Date | Applicable for amendments, check in the IEA database for name and date, or on website. | |
| | Corefile_name, Lang1 | Look at IEA database for formatting of names and enter an appropriate name, in lang1 you enter EN.txt (text should be in English). | Example: A new amendment would have a name something like this, with the year of the amendment with amendment and the original treaty name: “2012-Amendments-1992-ProtectionUseTransboundaryWatercourses”; a new agreement would look something like this “2012-EstablishmentofAfricanRiskCapacityAgency” |
| | Tacit | Look in the original agreement, the treaty delegates this power. Will the amendment enter into force right away; the treaty gives tacit power by making it so that governments do not have to approve entry into force (EIF). If it is tacit there is automatic membership. | |
| 4 | After recording all of the information in the new agreements tab you will create text version of the treaty so that it can be uploaded unto the website. Please see the following steps to help you with this process: | If the linked document is a picture or scan of the agreement take a sentence from the agreement that appears to be unique and google search for a text document. | |
| | First, find a document that can be copied into notepad (or word), or find a PDF copy of the treaty that can be copied or converted into a word document. At this point make sure to save the html, also make sure that you have a link copied into the membership_sources table (direct link and/or linked from page so that this can be linked to later). | Record in the notes if an editable version of the treaty cannot be found. | |
| | Second, the document will need to be edited in Word ( first, copy the document into Notepad to remove any special formatting and then copy it back into Word in order to make changes to the document). Look at the formatting that is in the IEA database: double spaces between paragraphs, normal text, etc. | Please see the IEA database for formatting of the treaties, turn on paragraph markers in Word to make this process simpler. Use find and replace (cntrl+h) and then start editing from there. | _ denotes space; | is the bar above the forward slash key on the key board it is useful because it will not usually appear in these documents otherwise so you can use it while you do other edits. |
| | | (1) formatting paragraphs: use the command ^p to find and replace all , the best way to start is to search the document and replace any _^p with a space. Then replace any ^p or ^p^p with a | ; | sometimes things will not format correctly and you’ll have to check them over to make sure that paragraphs were split correctly |
| | | (2) convert the entire paragraph to normal text (cntrl+shift+n); | |
| | | (3) find and replace any double spaces with single spaces and replace ^t (tab) with a space; | |
| | | (4) replace all | with ^p^p when you have finished looking over the document; | |
| | | (5) save it as a doc file (do this as back up just in case) and a txt file using the name from before followed by EN (if it’s in English) and .txt | 2012-Amendments-1992-ProtectionUseTransboundaryWatercourseEN.txt |
| 5 | Record the members who signed/agreed to the treaty for this you will be using the tabs membership and membership_sources | If the document does not have signatures find the signatories of the agreement, this can be done through a google search. If possibe find a copy with the signatories, if not find a list of members who signed. Save the urls for the membership_sources tab. | |
| | Membership_sources | Record links to the urls where the information was found and also you’ll double check if it is tacit as well as record the signature dates and EIF dates again. Look at the examples at the top for guidance. | linked_from_page (if it is a pdf or a scan sometimes this url will change so this is the page that you found the link that led to the scanned version); sig_source (the copy of the treaty with a list of signatories, or the pdf/scanned copy with signatures); Membership_source (link to the current membership); direct_url (the exact page you found the treaty on) |
| | Membership | Record who signed the treaty, look at the examples at the top for guidance. | If it is an amendment to a tacit agreement, record the membership as tacit and indicate when the agreement was negotiated and when it entered into force (EIF), some will enter in right away and some may have a period of time i.e. 90 days from agreement. If it is tacit find the tacit id, it is the id of the original amendment in the IEA database. |
| | Thanks! | | |
Ronald B. Mitchell, Professor 