Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate authority over other people and to change existing laws. In political theory, sovereignty is a substantive term designating supreme legitimate authority over some polity. In international law, sovereignty is the exercise of power by a state. De jure sovereignty refers to the legal right to do so; de facto sovereignty refers to the factual ability to do so. This can become an issue of special concern upon the failure of the usual expectation that de jure and de facto sovereignty exist at the place and time of concern, and reside within the same organization.
The member states of the United Nations comprise 193 sovereign states. The United Nations (UN) is the world's largest intergovernmental organization. All members have equal representation in the UN General Assembly.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of a military, chivalric, and noble nature. Though it possesses no territory, the order is often considered a sovereign entity under international law.
The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Order of St John, and also known as St John International, is an order of chivalry constituted in 1888 by royal charter from Queen Victoria and dedicated to St John the Baptist.
Noël Augustus Kinsella was a Canadian politician and was speaker of the Senate of Canada from 2006 to 2014.
Donald Franchot McHenry is a former American diplomat. He was the United States Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations from September 1979 until January 20, 1981.
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller, is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there until 1291, thereafter being based in Kolossi Castle in Cyprus (1302–1310), the island of Rhodes (1310–1522), Malta (1530–1798), and Saint Petersburg (1799–1801).
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) is a sovereign entity maintaining diplomatic relations with 113 sovereign states. Additionally, it has observer status or representation at multiple intergovernmental organisations. The Order has non-diplomatic official relations with five more states: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Canada and the United Kingdom. The Order exchanges ambassadors with the European Union and the State of Palestine.
Fra' Robert Matthew Festing GCStJ OBE TD DL was an English Roman Catholic official who was the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 2008 until his resignation on 28 January 2017, following a dispute with the Vatican.
Silvano Maria Tomasi C.S. is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as the Special Delegate to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta since 1 November 2020. He was the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva from 2003 to 2016. He previously worked in the Roman Curia, became an archbishop in 1996, and represented the Holy See as an apostolic nuncio in Africa from 1996 to 2003.
Fra' John Timothy Dunlap is a Canadian attorney and the 81st Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, since 2023.
Sovereign Military Order of Malta–European Union relations are the diplomatic relations between the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) and the European Union (EU). They were formally established in 2003 when the SMOM established a representation and office in Brussels, having been in contact with the European Commission since the early 1990s.
Fra' Gottfried Ritter von Kühnelt-Leddihn is a Knight of Justice and Prince Grand Prior of Austria of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. He is a retired government official of the State of Tyrol in Austria.
The Chapter General of the Order of Malta is the legislative body of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The Constitution describes it as "the supreme organ of governance of the Order." It meets every six years, mostly recently on 1-2 May 2019.
H.E. Don Riccardo Paternò, Count of Montecupo, Prince of Cerenzia, of the Dukes of San Nicolaand Pozzomauro is an Italian economist and academic serving as the Grand Chancellor of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta since September 2022. He is a member of the House of Paternò, a major Sicilian noble family.