The Antarctic Treaty in United States

The Antarctic Treaty

ENTERED INTO FORCE: 23 June 1961

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;

Acknowledge the substantial contributions to scientific knowledge
resulting from international co-operation in scientific investigation in
Antarctica;

Convinced that the establishment of a firm foundation for the
continuation and development of such co-operation 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

1. 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 types of weapons.

2. The present Treaty shall not prevent the use of military personnel or
equipment for scientific research or for any other peaceful purpose.

Article II

Freedom of scientific investigation in Antarctica and co-operation toward
that end, as applied during the International Geophysical Year, shall
continue, subject to the provisions of the present Treaty.

Article III

1. In order to promote international co-operation 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:

a) information regarding plans for scientific programs in Antarctica
shall be exchanged to permit maximum economy and efficiency of
operations;

b) scientific personnel shall be exchanged in Antarctica between
expeditions and stations;

c) 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 co-operative working relations with those
Specialized Agencies of the United Nations and other international
organizations having a scientific or technical interest in Antarctica.

Article IV

1. Nothing contained in the present Treaty shall be interpreted as:

a) a renunciation by any Contracting Party of previously asserted
rights of or claims to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica;

b) a renunciation or diminution by any Contracting Party of any basis
of claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica which it may have
whether as a result of its activities or those of its nationals in
Antarctica, or otherwise;

c) prejudicing the position of any Contracting Party as regards its
recognition or non-recognition of any other State’s right of or
claim or basis of claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica.

2. 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 or create any rights of
sovereignty in Antarctica. No new claim, or enlargement of an existing
claim, to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica shall be asserted while
the present Treaty is in force.

Article V

1. Any nuclear explosions in Antarctica and the disposal there of
radioactive waste material shall be prohibited.

2. 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

The provisions of the present Treaty shall apply to the area south of 60
deg 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

1. In order to promote the objectives and ensure the observance 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 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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

a) all expeditions to and within Antarctica, on the part of its ships
or nationals, and all expeditions to Antarctica .organized in or
proceeding from its territory;

b) all stations in Antarctica occupied by its nationals; and

c) 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

1. 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 of all acts or omissions occurring
while they are in Antarctica for the purpose of exercising their
functions.

2. 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

1. Representatives of the Contracting Parties named in the preamble to
the present Treaty shall meet at the City of Canberra within two months
after the 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:

a) use of Antarctica for peaceful purposes only;
b) facilitation of scientific research in Antarctica;
c) facilitation of international scientific cooperation in Antarctica;
d) facilitation of the exercise of the rights of inspection provided
for in Article VII of the Treaty;
e) questions relating to the exercise of jurisdiction in Antarctica;
f) preservation and conservation of living resources in Antarctica.

2. 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 that 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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

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

1. 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.

2. 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 or 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

1. a) 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 meeting 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.

b) Such modification or amendment shall thereafter enter into force as
to any other Contracting Policy 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. a) 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.

b) 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.

c) 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

1. 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.

2. Ratification of or accession to the present Treaty shall be effected
by each State in accordance with its constitutional processes.

3. Instruments of ratification and instruments of accession shall be
deposited with the Government of the United States of America, hereby
designated as the depositary Government.

4. 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.

5. Upon the deposit of instruments of ratification by all the signatory
States, the present Treaty shall enter into force for these 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 instruments of accession.

6. The present Treaty shall be registered by the depositary Government
pursuant to Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations.

Article XIV

The present Treaty, done in the English, French, Russian and Spanish
languages, each version being equally authentic, 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 this first day of December, one thousand nine hundred
and fifty-nine.