Antarctic Treaty System

The Antarctic Treaty
French: Traité sur l'Antarctique
Russian: Договор об Антарктике
Spanish: Tratado Antártico

Antarctic Treaty System
Flag of the Antarctic Treaty
Type	Condominium
Signed	December 1, 1959[1]
Location	Washington, D.C., United States
Effective	June 23, 1961
Condition	Ratification of all 12 signatories
Signatories	12[2]
Parties	53[2]
Depositary	Federal government of the United States[2]
Languages	English, French, Russian, and Spanish
Antarctic Treaty at Wikisource

A satellite composite image of Antarctica.

The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude. The treaty entered into force in 1961 and currently has 53 parties.^[2] The treaty sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation, and bans military activity on the continent. The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. Since September 2004, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat headquarters has been located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.^[3]

The main treaty was opened for signature on December 1, 1959, and officially entered into force on June 23, 1961.^[4] The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957–58. The twelve countries that had significant interests in Antarctica at the time were: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.^[1] These countries had established over 55 Antarctic stations for the IGY. The treaty was a diplomatic expression of the operational and scientific co-operation that had been achieved "on the ice".

Articles of the Antarctic Treaty[edit]

• Article 1 – The area is to be used for peaceful purposes only; military activity, such as weapons testing, is prohibited but military personnel and equipment may be used for scientific research or any other peaceful purpose;
• Article 2 – Freedom of scientific investigations and co-operation shall continue;
• Article 3 – Free exchange of information and personnel in co-operation with the United Nations and other international agencies;
• Article 4 – The treaty does not recognize, dispute, nor establish territorial sovereignty claims; no new claims shall be asserted while the treaty is in force;
• Article 5 – The treaty prohibits nuclear explosions or disposal of radioactive wastes;
• Article 6 – Includes under the treaty all land and ice shelves but not the surrounding waters south of 60 degrees 00 minutes south;
• Article 7 – Treaty-state observers have free access, including aerial observation, to any area and may inspect all stations, installations, and equipment; advance notice of all activities and of the introduction of military personnel must be given;
• Article 8 – Allows for good jurisdiction over observers and scientists by their own states;
• Article 9 – Frequent consultative meetings take place among member nations;
• Article 10 – All treaty states will discourage activities by any country in Antarctica that are contrary to the treaty;
• Article 11 – All disputes to be settled peacefully by the parties concerned or, ultimately, by the International Court of Justice;
• Articles 12, 13, 14 – Deal with upholding, interpreting, and amending the treaty among involved nations.

The main objective of the ATS is to ensure in the interests of all humankind that Antarctica shall continue forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or object of international discord. Pursuant to Article 1, the treaty forbids any measures of a military nature, but not the presence of military personnel or equipment for the purposes of scientific research.

Other agreements[edit]

Disposal of waste by simply dumping it at the shoreline such as here at the Russian Bellingshausen Station base on King George Island in 1992 is no longer permitted by the Protocol on Environmental Protection

Other agreements — some 200 recommendations adopted at treaty consultative meetings and ratified by governments — include:

• Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora (1964) (entered into force in 1982)
• The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (1972)
• The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (1982)^[5]
• The Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities (1988) (signed in 1988, not in force)
• The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was signed October 4, 1991, and entered into force January 14, 1998; this agreement prevents development and provides for the protection of the Antarctic environment through five specific annexes on marine pollution, fauna and flora, environmental impact assessments, waste management, and protected areas. It prohibits all activities relating to mineral resources except scientific. A sixth annex on liability arising from environmental emergencies  was adopted in 2005, but is yet to enter into force.

Bilateral treaties[edit]

• Exchange of Notes constituting an Agreement between the Governments of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Government of the French Republic, regarding Aerial Navigation in the Antarctic (Paris, 25 October 1938)^[6]
• Treaty Between the Government of Australia and the Government of the French Republic on Cooperation in the Maritime Areas Adjacent to the French Southern and Antarctic Territories (TAAF), Heard Island and the McDonald Islands (Canberra, 24 November 2003)^[7]
• Agreement on Cooperative Enforcement of Fisheries Laws between the Government of Australia and the Government of the French Republic in the Maritime Areas Adjacent to the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, Heard Island and the McDonald Islands (Paris, 8 January 2007)^[8]

Meetings[edit]

The Antarctic Treaty System's yearly Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCM) are the international forum for the administration and management of the region. Only 29 of the 53 parties to the agreements have the right to participate in decision-making at these meetings, though the other 24 are still allowed to attend. The decision-making participants are the Consultative Parties and, in addition to the 12 original signatories, include 17 countries that have demonstrated their interest in Antarctica by carrying out substantial scientific activity there.^[9]

Parties[edit]

Map of research stations and territorial claims in Antarctica (2002)

As of 2015, there are 53 states party to the treaty,^[2] 29 of which, including all 12 original signatories to the treaty, have consultative (voting) status.^[10] Consultative members include the seven nations that claim portions of Antarctica as national territory. The 46 non-claimant nations either do not recognize the claims of others, or have not stated their positions.

  Parties with consulting status making a claim to Antarctic territory

  Parties with consulting status reserving the right to make a territorial claim

  Other parties with consulting status

  Parties without consulting status

  Non-party UN member states and observers

Note: The table can be sorted alphabetically or chronologically using the icon.

Country[2][10][11][12]	Signature	Ratification/Accession	Consultative status[10][12]	Notes
Argentina (claim)*	Dec 1, 1959	Jun 23, 1961	Jun 23, 1961
Australia (claim)	Dec 1, 1959	Jun 23, 1961	Jun 23, 1961
Austria	No	Aug 25, 1987
Belarus	No	Dec 27, 2006
Belgium	Dec 1, 1959	Jul 26, 1960	Jun 23, 1961
Brazil	No	May 16, 1975	Sep 27, 1983
Bulgaria	No	Sep 11, 1978	Jun 5, 1998
Canada	No	May 4, 1988
Chile (claim)*	Dec 1, 1959	Jun 23, 1961	Jun 23, 1961
China	No	Jun 8, 1983	Oct 7, 1985
Colombia	No	Jan 31, 1989
Cuba	No	Aug 16, 1984
Czech Republic	No	Jan 1, 1993	Apr 1, 2014	Succession from  Czechoslovakia, which acceded on June 14, 1962.[13]
Denmark	No	May 20, 1965
Ecuador	No	Sep 15, 1987	Nov 19, 1990
Estonia	No	May 17, 2001
Finland	No	May 15, 1984	Oct 20, 1989
France (claim)	Dec 1, 1959	Sep 16, 1960	Jun 23, 1961
Germany (claim) (rests since 1945)	No	Feb 5, 1979	Mar 3, 1981	Ratified as  West Germany.  East Germany also acceded on November 19, 1974, and received consultative status on October 5, 1987, prior to its reunification with West Germany.[12][14]
Greece	No	Jan 8, 1987
Guatemala	No	Jul 31, 1991
Hungary	No	Jan 27, 1984
Iceland	No	Oct 13, 2015[15]
India	No	Aug 19, 1983	Sep 12, 1983
Italy	No	Mar 18, 1981	Oct 5, 1987
Japan	Dec 1, 1959	Aug 4, 1960	Jun 23, 1961
Kazakhstan	No	Jan 27, 2015
Malaysia	No	Oct 31, 2011
Monaco	No	May 31, 2008
Mongolia	No	Mar 23, 2015
Netherlands	No	Mar 30, 1967	Nov 19, 1990
New Zealand (claim)	Dec 1, 1959	Nov 1, 1960	Jun 23, 1961
North Korea	No	Jan 21, 1987
Norway (claim)	Dec 1, 1959	Aug 24, 1960	Jun 23, 1961
Pakistan	No	Mar 1, 2012
Papua New Guinea	No	Mar 16, 1981		Succession from  Australia. Effective from their independence on September 16, 1975.[16]
Peru	No	Apr 10, 1981	Oct 9, 1989
Poland	No	Jun 8, 1961	Jul 29, 1977
Portugal	No	Jan 29, 2010
Romania	No	Sep 15, 1971
Russia**	Dec 1, 1959	Nov 2, 1960	Jun 23, 1961	Ratified as the  Soviet Union.[17]
Slovakia	No	January 1, 1993		Succession from  Czechoslovakia, which acceded on June 14, 1962.[18]
South Africa[19]	Dec 1, 1959	Jun 21, 1960	Jun 23, 1961
South Korea	No	Nov 28, 1986	Oct 9, 1989
Spain	No	Mar 31, 1982	Sep 21, 1988
Sweden	No	Apr 24, 1984	Sep 21, 1988
Switzerland	No	Nov 15, 1990
Turkey	No	Jan 24, 1996
Ukraine	No	Oct 28, 1992	Jun 4, 2004
United Kingdom (claim)*	Dec 1, 1959	May 31, 1960	Jun 23, 1961
United States**	Dec 1, 1959	Aug 18, 1960	Jun 23, 1961
Uruguay	No	Jan 11, 1980	Oct 7, 1985
Venezuela	No	May 24, 1999

* Claims overlap.
** Reserved the right to claim areas.

Antarctic Treaty Secretariat[edit]

The Antarctic Treaty Secretariat was established in Buenos Aires, Argentina in September 2004 by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM). Jan Huber (Netherlands) served as the first Executive Secretary for five years until August 31, 2009. He was succeeded on September 1, 2009, by Manfred Reinke (Germany).

The tasks of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat can be divided into the following areas:

• Supporting the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and the meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP).
• Facilitating the exchange of information between the Parties required in the Treaty and the Environment Protocol.
• Collecting, storing, arranging and publishing the documents of the ATCM.
• Providing and disseminating public information about the Antarctic Treaty system and Antarctic activities.

Legal system[edit]

Antarctica currently has no permanent population and therefore it has no citizenship nor government. All personnel present on Antarctica at any time are citizens or nationals of some sovereignty outside Antarctica, as there is no Antarctic sovereignty. The majority of Antarctica is claimed by one or more countries, but most countries do not explicitly recognize those claims. The area on the mainland between 90 degrees west and 150 degrees west is the only major land on Earth not claimed by any country.^[20] Until 2015 the interior of the Norwegian Sector, the extent of which had never been officially defined,^[21] was considered to be unclaimed. That year, Norway formally laid claim to the area between its Queen Maud Land and the South Pole.^[22]

Governments that are party to the Antarctic Treaty and its Protocol on Environmental Protection implement the articles of these agreements, and decisions taken under them, through national laws. These laws generally apply only to their own citizens, wherever they are in Antarctica, and serve to enforce the consensus decisions of the consultative parties: about which activities are acceptable, which areas require permits to enter, what processes of environmental impact assessment must precede activities, and so on. The Antarctic Treaty is often considered to represent an example of the common heritage of mankind principle.^[23]

Australia[edit]

This 1959 cover commemorated the opening of the Wilkes post office in the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Since the designation of the Australian Antarctic Territory pre-dated the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, Australian laws that relate to Antarctica date from more than two decades before the Antarctic Treaty era. In terms of criminal law, the laws that apply to the Jervis Bay Territory (which follows the laws of the Australian Capital Territory) apply to the Australian Antarctic Territory. Key Australian legislation applying Antarctic Treaty System decisions include the Antarctic Treaty Act 1960, the Antarctic Treaty (Environment Protection) Act 1980 and the Antarctic Marine Living Resources Conservation Act 1981.^[24]

United States[edit]

The law of the United States, including certain criminal offences by or against U.S. nationals, such as murder, may apply to areas not under jurisdiction of other countries. To this end, the United States now stations special deputy U.S. Marshals in Antarctica to provide a law enforcement presence.^[25]

Some U.S. laws directly apply to Antarctica. For example, the Antarctic Conservation Act, Public Law 95-541, 16 U.S.C. § 2401 et seq., provides civil and criminal penalties for the following activities, unless authorized by regulation or statute:

• the taking of native Antarctic mammals or birds
• the introduction into Antarctica of non-indigenous plants and animals
• entry into specially protected or scientific areas
• the discharge or disposal of pollutants into Antarctica or Antarctic waters
• the importation into the U.S. of certain items from Antarctica

Violation of the Antarctic Conservation Act carries penalties of up to US$10,000 in fines and one year in prison. The Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, Transportation, and the Interior share enforcement responsibilities. The Act requires expeditions from the U.S. to Antarctica to notify, in advance, the Office of Oceans and Polar Affairs of the State Department, which reports such plans to other nations as required by the Antarctic Treaty. Further information is provided by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation.

New Zealand[edit]

In 2006, the New Zealand police reported that jurisdictional issues prevented them issuing warrants for potential American witnesses who were reluctant to testify during the Christchurch Coroner's investigation into the death by poisoning of Australian astrophysicist Rodney Marks at the South Pole base in May 2000.^[26][27] Dr. Marks died while wintering over at the United States' Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station located at the geographic South Pole. Prior to autopsy, the death was attributed to natural causes by the National Science Foundation and the contractor administering the base. However, an autopsy in New Zealand revealed that Dr. Marks died from methanol poisoning. The New Zealand Police launched an investigation. In 2006, frustrated by lack of progress, the Christchurch Coroner said that it was unlikely that Dr. Marks ingested the methanol knowingly, although there is no certainty that he died as the direct result of the act of another person. During media interviews, the police detective in charge of the investigation criticized the National Science Foundation and contractor Raytheon for failing to co-operate with the investigation.^[28][29][30]

South Africa[edit]

South African law applies to all South African citizens in Antarctica, and they are subject to the jurisdiction of the magistrate's court in Cape Town.^[31] In regard to violations of the Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, South Africa also asserts jurisdiction over South African residents and members of expeditions organised in South Africa.^[32]

See also[edit]

• Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC)
• Antarctic Protected Areas
• Antarctic Treaty issue
• Arctic Council
• Crime in Antarctica
• Multilateral treaty
• National Antarctic Program
• Category: Outposts of Antarctica
• Research stations in Antarctica

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Antarctic Treaty

• Antarctic Treaty Secretariat
• Full Text of the Antarctic Treaty
• Original facsimile of Antarctic Treaty
• Australian Antarctic Territory
• National Science Foundation – Office of Polar Programs
• List of all Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings
• An Antarctic Solution for the Koreas San Diego Union-Tribune, August 25, 2005 (Both South Korea and North Korea are members of the Antarctic Treaty)
• Emblem of the Antarctic Treaty