Antarctic Treaty System


The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System, 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 54 parties. 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.
The main treaty was opened for signature on December 1, 1959, and officially entered into force on June 23, 1961. The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year 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. 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".

History

International conflicts

Various international conflicts motivated the creation of an agreement for the Antarctic. After the Second World War, the U.S. considered establishing a claim in Antarctica. From August 26, 1946, and until the beginning of 1947, Operation Highjump was carried out, the largest military expeditionary force that the United States has sent to Antarctica to the present, consisting of 13 ships, 4700 men and numerous aerial devices. Its goals were to train military personnel and test material in conditions of extreme cold for an eventual war in the Antarctic.
Some incidents had occurred during World War II, and a new one occurred in Hope Bay on February 1, 1952, when the Argentine military fired warning shots at a group of Britons. The response of the United Kingdom was to send a warship that landed marines on February 4, at the scene. This occurred; however, after 1949, Argentina, Chile, and the United Kingdom signed a Tripartite Naval Declaration committing not to send warships south of the 60th South parallel, which was renewed annually until 1961 when it was deemed unnecessary when the treaty entered into force. This tripartite declaration was signed after the tension generated when Argentina sent to Antarctica in February 1948 a fleet of 8 warships.
On January 17, 1953, Argentina reopened the Lieutenant Lasala refuge on Deception Island, leaving a sergeant and a corporal in the Argentine Navy. On February 15, in the incident on Deception Island, 32 royal marines landed from the British frigate HMS Snipe armed with Sten machine guns, rifles, and tear gas capturing the two Argentine sailors. The Argentine refuge and a nearby uninhabited Chilean shelter were destroyed, and the Argentine sailors were delivered to a ship from that country on February 18 in the South Georgias Islands. A British detachment remained three months on the island while the frigate patrolled its waters until April.
On May 4, 1955, the United Kingdom filed two lawsuits, against Argentina and Chile respectively, before the International Court of Justice to declare the invalidity of the claims of the sovereignty of the two countries over Antarctic and sub-Antarctic areas. On July 15, 1955, the Chilean Government rejected the jurisdiction of the Court in that case, and on August 1, the Argentine Government also did so, so on March 16, 1956, the claims were filed.

Previous agreements

On September 2, 1947, the American quadrant of Antarctica was included as part of the security zone of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, committing its members to defend it in case of external aggression.
In August 1948, the United States proposed that Antarctica be under the guardianship of the United Nations as a trust administered by Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, United States, United Kingdom, and New Zealand. Still, the idea was rejected by Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, and Norway. Before the rejection, on August 28, 1948, the United States proposed to the claimants some form of internationalization of Antarctica, with the support of the United Kingdom. Chile responded by presenting a plan to suspend any Antarctic claim for 5 to 10 years while negotiating a final solution, which did not prosper. The interest of the United States to keep the Soviet Union away from Antarctica was frustrated when in 1950, this country informed the claimants that it would not accept any Antarctic agreement in which it was not represented. The fear that the USSR would react by doing a territorial claim transferring the Cold War to Antarctica led the United States to do none. In 1956 and 1958, India tried unsuccessfully to bring the Antarctic issue to the United Nations General Assembly.

International Geophysical Year

In 1950 the International Council of Scientific Unions discussed the possibility of holding a third International Polar Year. At the suggestion of the World Meteorological Organization, the idea of the International Polar Year was extended to the entire planet, thus creating the International Geophysical Year that took place between July 1, 1957, and December 31, 1958. In this event, 66 countries participated. At the ICSU meeting in Stockholm from September 9 to 11, 1957, the creation of a Special Committee for Antarctic Research was approved, inviting the twelve countries conducting Antarctic investigations to send delegates to integrate the committee, with the purpose of exchanging scientific information among its members regarding Antarctica. The SCAR was later renamed to the Scientific Committee for Research in Antarctica.
Both Argentina and Chile expressed that researching during the International Geophysical Year would not give any territorial rights to the participants and that the facilities that were erected during that year should then be dismantled at the end of it. After the United States proposed to extend the Antarctic investigations for another year, in February 1958, the Soviet Union reported that it would maintain its scientific bases until the studies that were carried out were completed.

Negotiation of the treaty

Scientific bases increased in international tension concerning Antarctica, and the danger of the Cold War spreading to that continent, caused the President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, to convene an Antarctic Conference to the twelve countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year, to sign a treaty. In the first phase, representatives of the twelve nations met in Washington, who met in 60 sessions from June 1958 to October 1959, to define the basic negotiating framework. Still, no consensus was reached on a preliminary draft. In the second phase, a conference of the highest diplomatic level was held from October 15 to December 1, 1959, the date of the signing of the treaty. The central ideas with full acceptance were the freedom of scientific research in Antarctica and the peaceful use of the continent. Still, their demilitarization and the maintenance of the status quo also had consensus.
The positions of the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand coincided in the establishment of an international administration for Antarctica, proposing the latter to be within the framework of the United Nations. Australia and the United Kingdom expressed the need for inspections by observers, and the second proposed the use of military means for logistics functions. Argentina proposed that all atomic explosions be banned in Antarctica, which caused a crisis that lasted until the eve of the firm, since the United States, along with other countries, intended to ban only those that were made without prior notice and without prior consultation. The support of the USSR and Chile to the Argentine proposal finally caused the United States to retract its opposition.
The signing of the treaty was the first arms control agreement that occurred in the framework of the Cold War, and the complaining countries managed to avoid the internationalization of Antarctic sovereignty.

Articles of the Antarctic Treaty

Article I

Article II

Article III

Article IV

Article V

Article VI

The provisions of the present treaty shall apply to the area south of 60-degree South Latitude, including all ice shelves, but nothing in the present treaty shall prejudice or in any way affect the rights, or the exercise of the rights, of any State under international law with regard to the high seas within that area.

Article VII

Article VIII

Article IX

Article X

Article XI

Articles XII, XIII, XIV

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

Other agreements — some 200 recommendations adopted at treaty consultative meetings and ratified by governments — include:
The Antarctic Treaty System's yearly Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings are the international forum for the administration and management of the region. Only 29 of the 54 parties to the agreements have the right to participate in decision-making at these meetings, though the other 25 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. The Antarctic Treaty also has Special Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings , which are generally summoned to treat more important topics but are less frequents and Meetings of Experts.

Parties

As of 2019, there are 54 states party to the treaty, 29 of which, including all 12 original signatories to the treaty, have consultative status. The consultative members include the seven countries that claim portions of Antarctica as their territory. The 47 non-claimant nations either do not recognize the claims of others, or have not stated their positions. 40 parties to the Antarctic Treaty have also ratified the "Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty".
CountrySignatureRatification/
Accession		Consultative
status		Notes
Argentina '*1 Dec 195923 Jun 196123 Jun 1961
Australia '1 Dec 195923 Jun 196123 Jun 1961
AustriaNo25 Aug 1987
BelarusNo27 Dec 2006
Belgium1 Dec 195926 Jul 196023 Jun 1961
BrazilNo16 May 197527 Sep 1983
BulgariaNo11 Sep 19785 Jun 1998
CanadaNo4 May 1988
Chile '*1 Dec 195923 Jun 196123 Jun 1961
ChinaNo8 Jun 19837 Oct 1985
ColombiaNo31 Jan 1989
CubaNo16 Aug 1984
Czech RepublicNo1 Jan 19931 Apr 2014Succession from, which acceded on June 14, 1962.
DenmarkNo20 May 1965
EcuadorNo15 Sep 198719 Nov 1990
EstoniaNo17 May 2001
FinlandNo15 May 198420 Oct 1989
France '1 Dec 195916 Sep 196023 Jun 1961
Germany 'No5 Feb 19793 Mar 1981Ratified as.
also acceded on November 19, 1974, and received consultative status on October 5, 1987, prior to its reunification with West Germany.
GreeceNo8 Jan 1987
GuatemalaNo31 Jul 1991
HungaryNo27 Jan 1984
IcelandNo13 Oct 2015
IndiaNo19 Aug 198312 Sep 1983
ItalyNo18 Mar 19815 Oct 1987
Japan '1 Dec 19594 Aug 196023 Jun 1961
KazakhstanNo27 Jan 2015
MalaysiaNo31 Oct 2011
MonacoNo31 May 2008
MongoliaNo23 Mar 2015
NetherlandsNo30 Mar 196719 Nov 1990
New Zealand '1 Dec 19591 Nov 196023 Jun 1961
North KoreaNo21 Jan 1987
Norway '1 Dec 195924 Aug 196023 Jun 1961
PakistanNo1 Mar 2012
Papua New GuineaNo16 Mar 1981Succession from Australia. Effective from their independence on September 16, 1975.
PeruNo10 Apr 19819 Oct 1989
PolandNo8 Jun 196129 Jul 1977
PortugalNo29 Jan 2010
RomaniaNo15 Sep 1971
Russia**1 Dec 19592 Nov 196023 Jun 1961Ratified as the.
SlovakiaNo1 January 1993Succession from, which acceded on June 14, 1962.
SloveniaNo22 April 2019
South Africa1 Dec 195921 Jun 196023 Jun 1961
South KoreaNo28 Nov 19869 Oct 1989
SpainNo31 Mar 198221 Sep 1988
SwedenNo24 Apr 198421 Sep 1988
SwitzerlandNo15 Nov 1990
TurkeyNo24 Jan 1996
UkraineNo28 Oct 19924 Jun 2004
United Kingdom *1 Dec 195931 May 196023 Jun 1961
United States**1 Dec 195918 Aug 196023 Jun 1961
UruguayNo11 Jan 19807 Oct 1985
VenezuelaNo24 May 1999

Has an overlapping claim with another one or two claimants.

Reserved the right to make a claim.

Antarctic Treaty Secretariat

The Antarctic Treaty Secretariat was established in Buenos Aires, Argentina in September 2004 by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. Jan Huber served as the first Executive Secretary for five years until August 31, 2009. He was succeeded on September 1, 2009, by Manfred Reinke.
The tasks of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat can be divided into the following areas:
Antarctica currently has no permanent population and therefore it has no citizenship nor government. Personnel present on Antarctica at any time are almost always 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. Until 2015 the interior of the Norwegian Sector, the extent of which had never been officially defined, was considered to be unclaimed. That year, Norway formally laid claim to the area between its Queen Maud Land and the South Pole.
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.

Australia

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 apply to the Australian Antarctic Territory. Key Australian legislation applying Antarctic Treaty System decisions include the Antarctic Treaty Act 1960, the Antarctic Treaty Act 1980 and the Antarctic Marine Living Resources Conservation Act 1981.

United States

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

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. 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.

South Africa

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. 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.