LIST OF SPECIAL ENTITIES RECOGNIZED BY INTERNATIONAL TREATY OR AGREEMENT

Four political entities have a special position recognized by international treaty or agreement (''Åland'' in Finland, ''Svalbard'' in Norway, as well as the special administrative regions of ''Hong Kong'' and ''Macau'' in the People's Republic of China).

Contents

Entities on the list

See also

Entities on the list

===People's Republic of China===
Main articles: special administrative region (People's Republic of China)


★ Hong Kong: special administrative region; after the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong was signed on December 19, 1984, the People's Republic of China resumed the exercise of sovereignty of Hong Kong on July 1, 1997. It is now largely autonomous operating under the Basic Law of Hong Kong.

★ Macau: special administrative region; after the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau was signed in 1987, the People's Republic of China resumed the exercise of sovereignty of Macau on December 20, 1999. It is now largely autonomous operating under the Basic Law of Macau.
===Finland===
Main articles: Åland#Autonomy of Åland


★ Åland: neutral and demilitarised autonomous region of Finland. It was demilitarised by the Treaty of Paris in 1856, which was later affirmed by the League of Nations in 1921, and in a somewhat different context reaffirmed in the treaty on Finland's admission to the European Union in 1995.
===Norway===
Main articles: Svalbard Treaty


★ Svalbard: Part of the Kingdom of Norway; administered by the Polar Department of the Ministry of Justice, through a governor (''sysselmann'') residing in Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen; Norwegian sovereignty was recognized by the Svalbard Treaty (February 9, 1920).

See also

★ List of countries

★ List of sovereign states

★ List of subnational entities

★ List of dependent territories

★ List of non-independent areas such as disputed or occupied territories

★ List of unrecognized countries

★ Dependent territories in the European Union

★ Kosovo, ''de jure'' part of Serbia, currently under UN administration.

★ Sovereign Military Order of Malta