THE ANTARCTIC TREATY
Comment by National Science Foundation (1994)
The 12 nations listed in the preamble (below) signed the
Antarctic Treaty on 1 December 1959 at Washington, D.C.
The treaty entered into force on 23 June 1961; the 12
signatories became the original 12 consultative nations.
As of mid-1994, 14 additional nations (Brazil, China,
Ecuador, Finland, Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands,
Poland, Republic of Korea, Peru, Sweden, Spain, and
Uruguay) have achieved consultative status by acceding to
the treaty and by conducting substantial scientific
research in Antarctica. Russia carries forward the
signatory privileges and responsibilities established by
the former Soviet Union.
Another 16 nations have acceded to the Antarctic Treaty:
Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Czech
Republic, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Denmark,
Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Papua New Guinea, Romania,
Slovak Republic, Switzerland, and Ukraine. These nations
agree to abide by the treaty and may attend consultative
meetings as observers.
The 42 Antarctic Treaty nations represent about two-
thirds of the world's human population.
Consultative meetings have been held approximately every
other year since the treaty entered into force, but since
1993 they have been held annually. Each meeting has
generating recommendations regarding operation of the
treaty that, when ratified by the participating
governments, become binding on the parties to the treaty.
Additional meetings within the Antarctic Treaty system
have produced agreements on conservation of seals,
conservation of living resources, and comprehensive
environmental protection.
What follows is the complete text of the Antarctic
Treaty. The headings for each article were added by the
National Science Foundation and are unofficial.
FULL TEXT OF THE ANTARCTIC TREATY
[preamble]
The Governments of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile,
the French Republic, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the
Union of South Africa, The Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland, and the United States of America,
Recognizing that it is in the interest of all mankind
that Antarctica shall continue forever to be used
exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become
the scene or object of international discord;
Acknowledging the substantial contributions to scientific
knowledge resulting from international cooperation in
scientific investigation in Antarctica;
Convinced that the establishment of a firm foundation for
the continuation and development of such cooperation on
the basis of freedom of scientific investigation in
Antarctica as applied during the International
Geophysical Year accords with the interests of science
and the progress of all mankind;
Convinced also that a treaty ensuring the use of Antarctica for peaceful purposes only and the continuance of
international harmony in Antarctica will further the
purposes and principles embodied in the Charter of the
United Nations;
Have agreed as follows:
Article I
[Antarctica for peaceful purposes only]
- Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only.
There shall be prohibited, inter alia, any measures of a
military nature, such as the establishment of military
bases and fortifications, the carrying out of military
maneuvers, as well as the testing of any type of weapons.
- The present Treaty shall not prevent the use of military personnel or equipment for scientific research or
for any other peaceful purposes.
Article II
[freedom of scientific investigation to continue]
- Freedom of scientific investigation in Antarctica and
cooperation toward that end, as applied during the
International Geophysical Year, shall continue, subject
to the provisions of the present Treaty.
Article III
[plans and results to be exchanged]
- In order to promote international cooperation in scientific investigation in Antarctica, as provided for in
Article II of the present Treaty, the Contracting Parties
agree that, to the greatest extent feasible and
practicable:
- information regarding plans for scientific programs
in Antarctica shall be exchanged to permit maximum
economy and efficiency of operations;
- scientific personnel shall be exchanged in Antarctica
between expeditions and stations;
- scientific observations and results from Antarctica
shall be exchanged and made freely available.
- 2. In implementing this Article, every encouragement
shall be given to the establishment of cooperative
working relations with those Specialized Agencies of the
United Nations and other international organizations
having a scientific or technical interest in Antarctica.
Article IV
[territorial claims]
- Nothing contained in the present Treaty shall be
interpreted as:
- a renunciation by any Contracting Party of previously
asserted rights of or claims to territorial sovereignty
in Antarctica;
- a renunciation or diminution by any Contracting Party
of any basis of claim to territorial sovereignty in Ant-
arctica which it may have whether as a result of its
activities or those of its nationals in Antarctica, or
otherwise;
- prejudicing the position of any Contracting Party as
regards its recognition or nonrecognition of any other
State's right of or claim or basis of claim to
territorial sovereignty in Antarctica.
- No acts or activities taking place while the present
Treaty is in force shall constitute a basis for
asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial
sovereignty in Antarctica. No new claim, or enlargement
of an existing claim, to territorial sovereignty shall be
asserted while the present Treaty is in force.
Article V
[nuclear explosions prohibited]
- Any nuclear explosions in Antarctica and the disposal
there of radioactive waste material shall be prohibited.
- In the event of the conclusion of international
agreements concerning the use of nuclear energy,
including nuclear explosions and the disposal of
radioactive waste material, to which all of the
Contracting Parties whose representatives are entitled to
participate in the meetings provided for under Article IX
are parties, the rules established under such agreements
shall apply in Antarctica.
Article VI
[area covered by Treaty]
- The provisions of the present Treaty shall apply to the
area south of 60 degrees 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
[free access for observation and inspection]
- In order to promote the objectives and ensure the observation of the provisions of the present Treaty, each
Contracting Party whose representatives are entitled to
participate in the meetings referred to in Article IX of
the Treaty shall have the right to designate observers to
carry out any inspection provided for by the present
Article. Observers shall be nationals of the Contracting
Parties which designate them. The names of the observers
shall be communicated to every other Contracting Party
having the right to designate observers, and like notice
shall be given of the termination of their appointment.
- Each observer designated in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article shall have
complete freedom of access at any time to any or all
areas of Antarctica.
- All areas of Antarctica, including all stations,
installations and equipment within those areas, and all
ships and aircraft at points of discharging or embarking
cargoes or personnel in Antarctica, shall be open at all
times to inspection by any observers designated in
accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article.
- Aerial observation may be carried out at any time
over any or all areas of Antarctica by any of the
Contracting Parties having the right to designate
observers.
- Each Contracting Party shall, at the time when the
present Treaty enters into force for it, inform the other
Contracting Parties, and thereafter shall give them
notice in advance, of
- all expeditions to and within Antarctica, on the part
of its ships of nationals, and all expeditions to
Antarctica organized in or proceeding from its territory;
- all stations in Antarctica occupied by its nationals;
and
- any military personnel or equipment intended to be
introduced by it into Antarctica subject to the
conditions prescribed in paragraph 2 of Article I of the
present Treaty.
Article VIII
[personnel under jurisdiction of their own states]
- In order to facilitate the exercise of their
functions under the present Treaty, and without prejudice
to the respective positions of the Contracting Parties
relating to jurisdiction over all other persons in
Antarctica, observers designated under paragraph 1 of
Article VII and scientific personnel exchanged under
subparagraph 1(b) of Article III of the Treaty, and
members of the staffs accompanying any such persons,
shall be subject only to the jurisdiction of the
Contracting Party of which they are nationals in respect
to all acts or omissions occurring while they are in
Antarctica for the purpose of exercising their functions.
- Without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 1 of
this Article, and pending the adoption of measures in
pursuance of subparagraph 1(e) of Article IX, the
Contracting Parties concerned in any case of dispute with
regard to the exercise of jurisdiction in Antarctica
shall immediately consult together with a view to
reaching a mutually acceptable solution.
Article IX
[Treaty states to meet periodically]
- Representatives of the Contracting Parties named in
the preamble to the present Treaty shall meet at the City
of Canberra within two months after date of entry into
force of the Treaty, and thereafter at suitable intervals
and places, for the purpose of exchanging information,
consulting together on matters of common interest
pertaining to Antarctica, and formulating and
considering, and recommending to their Governments,
measures in furtherance of the principles and objectives
of the Treaty including measures regarding:
- use of Antarctica for peaceful purposes only;
- facilitation of scientific research in Antarctica;
- facilitation of international scientific cooperation
in Antarctica;
- facilitation of the exercise of the rights of inspection provided for in Article VII of the Treaty;
- questions relating to the exercise of jurisdiction in
Antarctica;
- preservation and conservation of living resources in
Antarctica.
- Each Contracting Party which has become a party
to the present Treaty by accession under Article XIII
shall be entitled to appoint representatives to
participate in the meetings referred to in paragraph 1 of
the present Article, during such time as the Contracting
Party demonstrates its interest in Antarctica by
conducting substantial scientific research activity
there, such as the establishment of a scientific station
or the despatch of a scientific expedition.
- Reports from the observers referred to in Article VII
of the present Treaty shall be transmitted to the
representatives of the Contracting Parties participating
in the meetings referred to in paragraph 1 of the present
Article.
- The measures referred to in paragraph 1 of this
Article shall become effective when approved by all the
Contracting Parties whose representatives were entitled
to participate in the meetings held to consider those
measures.
- Any or all of the rights established in the present
Treaty may be exercised as from the date of entry into
force of the Treaty whether or not any measures
facilitating the exercise of such rights have been
proposed, considered or approved as provided in this
Article.
Article X
[discourages activities contrary to Treaty]
- Each of the Contracting Parties undertakes to exert appropriate efforts, consistent with the Charter of the
United Nations, to the end that no one engages in any
activity in Antarctica contrary to the principles or
purposes of the present Treaty.
Article XI
[settlement of disputes]
- If any dispute arises between two or more of the Contracting Parties concerning the interpretation or
application of the present Treaty, those Contracting
Parties shall consult among themselves with a view to
having the dispute resolved by negotiation, inquiry,
mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement
or other peaceful means of their own choice.
- Any dispute of this character not so resolved shall,
with the consent, in each case, of all parties to the
dispute, be referred to the International Court of
Justice for settlement; but failure to reach agreement on
reference to the International Court shall not absolve
parties to the dispute from the responsibility of
continuing to seek to resolve it by any of the various
peaceful means referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.
Article XII
[review of Treaty possible after 30 years]
- 1.
- The present Treaty may be modified or amended
at
any time by unanimous agreement of the Contracting Parties whose representatives are entitled to participate in
the meetings provided for under Article IX. Any such
modification or amendment shall enter into force when the
depositary Government has received notice from all such
Contracting Parties that they have ratified it.
- Such modification or amendment shall thereafter enter
into force as to any other Contracting Party when notice
of ratification by it has been received by the depositary
Government. Any such Contracting Party from which no
notice of ratification is received within a period of two
years from the date of entry into force of the
modification or amendment in accordance with the
provisions of subparagraph 1(a) of this Article shall be
deemed to have withdrawn from the present Treaty on the
date of the expiration of such period.
- 2.
- If after the expiration of thirty years from the
date of entry into force of the present Treaty, any of
the Contracting Parties whose representatives are
entitled to participate in the meetings provided for
under Article IX so requests by a communication addressed
to the depositary Government, a Conference of all the
Contracting Parties shall be held as soon as practicable
to review the operation of the Treaty.
- Any modification or amendment to the present Treaty
which is approved at such a Conference by a majority of
the Contracting Parties there represented, including a
majority of those whose representatives are entitled to
participate in the meetings provided for under Article
IX, shall be communicated by the depositary Government to
all the Contracting Parties immediately after the
termination of the Conference and shall enter into force
in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of the
present Article.
- If any such modification or amendment has not entered
into force in accordance with the provisions of subparagraph 1(a) of this Article within a period of two years
after the date of its communication to all the
Contracting Parties, any Contracting Party may at any
time after the expiration of that period give notice to
the depositary Government of its withdrawal from the
present Treaty; and such withdrawal shall take effect two
years after the receipt of the notice by the depositary
Government.
Article XIII
[ratification and accession]
- The present Treaty shall be subject to ratification
by the signatory States. It shall be open for accession
by any State which is a Member of the United Nations, or
by any other State which may be invited to accede to the
Treaty with the consent of all the Contracting Parties
whose representatives are entitled to participate in the
meetings provided for under Article IX of the Treaty.
- Ratification of or accession to the present Treaty
shall be effected by each State in accordance with its
constitutional processes.
- Instruments of ratification and instruments of acces-
sion shall be deposited with the Government of the United
States of America, hereby designated as the depositary
Government.
- The depositary Government shall inform all signatory
and acceding States of the date of each deposit of an
instrument of ratification or accession, and the date of
entry into force of the Treaty and of any modification or
amendment thereto.
- Upon the deposit of instruments of ratification by
all the signatory States, the present Treaty shall enter
into force for those States and for States which have
deposited instruments of accession. Thereafter the
Treaty shall enter into force for any acceding State upon
the deposit of its instrument of accession.
- The present Treaty shall be registered by the de-
positary Government pursuant to Article 102 of the
Charter of the United Nations.
Article XIV
[United States is repository]
The present Treaty, done in the English, French, Russian,
and Spanish languages, each version being equally authen-
tic, shall be deposited in the archives of the Government
of the United States of America, which shall transmit
duly certified copies thereof to the Governments of the
signatory and acceding States.
In witness whereof, the undersigned Plenipotentiaries,
duly authorized, have signed the present Treaty.
Done at Washington the first day of December, one thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine.
For Argentina:
Adolfo Seilingo
F. Bello
For Australia:
Howard Beale
For Belgium:
Obert de Thieusies
For Chile:
Marcial Mora M.
L. Gajardo V.
Julio Escudero
For the French Republic:
Pierre Charpentier
For Japan:
Koichiro Asakai
T. Shimoda
For New Zealand:
G.D.L. White
For Norway:
Paul Koht
For the Union of South Africa:
Wentzel C. du Plessis
For the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics:
V. Kuznetsov
For the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:
Harold Caccia
For the United States of America:
Herman Phleger
Paul C. Daniels