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Antarctic Treaty crash course

Here to summarize what the Antarctic Treaty is all about! (Includes some history)


After being discovered in the 19th century, Antarctica became of interest for countries in the 20th century, being seen as an untouched region with resources that no one had claimed. Parting from there, Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom, became the original seven countries to make territorial claims on Antarctic territory (some overlapping), mainly based on geographical positioning and the rights reserved to those whom arrived first.


Fast forward years after these seven countries made their claims, five more countries were quick to get involved in the divided sovereignty of Antarctic territory: Belgium, Japan, Russia (USSR), South Africa, and the United States of America. Seeing as the number of countries involved in Antarctic territory were rapidly increasing, the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) was developed and then signed in Washington, December 1st of 1959, by the previously mentioned countries that had been scientifically active in and around Antarctica from 1957 to 1958.

This treaty put into force in 1961, answered the question of who had rightly possession over Antarctic territory, specified that the already occupied territories were to remain that way, and that all countries involved (directly or indirectly) were restrained from claiming or recognizing any territory as sovereign.

Furthermore, in the ATS it is established that although bases for scientific research are allowed to be developed inside the limitations of the claimed regions by nations foreign to the treaty itself, no more territorial claims were to be made beyond the ones that had already been created. I must mention that in the treaty it was expressed that both military and nuclear testing were forbidden and that the land was only to be used for peaceful purposes such as scientific investigation.


Finally, catching up with the present, we can find that 42 more parties have joined the ATS, where there are 29 Consultative Parties and 25 Non-Consultative Parties out of the total 54 parties. Having that said, they can all attend Consultative Meetings, but only Consultative Parties are involved in the decision making.



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Check out the original ATS document down below (retrieved from the document section in: https://www.ats.aq/e/antarctictreaty.html)


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