protocol (politics)

{{Short description|Additional or amending agreement to a convention concluded between nations}}

Protocol originally (in Late Middle English, c. 15th century) meant the minutes or logbook taken at a meeting, upon which an agreement was based. The term now commonly refers to an agreement resulting from a meeting, or more generally to any established procedure in an organisation or group, such as a laboratory protocol in scientific research, or a data transfer protocol in computing, or etiquette in diplomacy.{{Cite web |title=protocol |url=https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/protocol |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009194437/https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/protocol |archive-date=9 October 2019 |access-date=9 October 2019 |website=Lexico |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=protocol |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/protocol |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621212144/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/protocol |archive-date=21 June 2019 |access-date=21 June 2019 |website=Dictionary.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=protocol |url=https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/protocol |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190718054644/https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/protocol |archive-date=18 July 2019 |access-date=18 July 2019 |website=Thesaurus.com |language=en}}

In international law, a treaty that supplements or adds to a pre-existing treaty is often called a "protocol". For example, the Kyoto Protocol was supplemental to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Protocol I, Protocol II, and Protocol III supplement the 1949 Geneva Conventions; and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is supplemented by an Optional Protocol.

The most notorious example of a forged logbook is "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".