Treaty and Convention, How These Two Are Different ?

Treaty and convention are two words that looks to have same meaning. Too often I hear the question about difference between these two terms . And each time I read or hear an answer to this question, it becomes even more confusing. Do you feel the same way about these terms ? So lets simplify these terms once for all. What is a treaty ? We will come to the difference part. But first let us understand what exactly a treaty is. And what more better way to understand this than with a story. The story is about "peace process". Let us say there are 2 friends. Off late, they fight a lot with each other. But now they want to have a peaceful environment. So they made a set of rules for each one to follow. Both of them signed these rules and agreed to follow this in the future. You know what ? They have just signed a treaty. Since this treaty is about having peace and harmony, it may be called "Peace treaty" between two friends. And since it involves two parties, it will be called "Bilateral treaty". Now you can co-relate this to the real treaties. For example, Indus water treaty is a bi-party treaty between India and Pakistan for distribution of water from rivers flowing from India to Pakistan. Same way, Cuban-American treaty is the bi-party treaty between Cuba and United states of America for the betterm...