[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]
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 type of weapons.
2. 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]
1. 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:
(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 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]
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 nonrecognition 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.
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]
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
[area covered by Treaty]
The provisions of the present Treaty shall
apply to the area south of 60o 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]
1. 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.
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 of 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
[personnel under jurisdiction of their own
states]
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 to 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
[Treaty states to meet periodically]
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 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 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 dispatch 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
[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]
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 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. (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 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.
(b) 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. (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
[ratification and accession]
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 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.
6. The present Treaty shall be registered by
the depositary 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 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 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