ATLAS

Official versionOMEGA-11-3-5Sheet 5 of 6 of the dossier Antarctic Treaty

Official version: rules for states, not a ban on people

How the Treaty's own articles describe access, information, responsibility and the use of military means.

Round emblem showing a white outline map of Antarctica on a blue background.
Emblem of the Antarctic Treaty, a white map of the continent on a blue disc (redrawn by Alakasam, 2010). Alakasam · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Summary

The official reading of the Treaty is that of its text and of the bodies that apply it. Its first article reserves Antarctica for peaceful purposes while allowing military personnel and equipment when they serve science or another peaceful aim; this is why uniforms and military aircraft appear on the continent without breaching anything. Article III makes scientific observations and results freely available. Article X makes each Party responsible for ensuring that nobody engages in activity contrary to the Treaty, which is the origin of national permit and notification schemes. The Environmental Protocol adds that inspection reports and notifications are circulated to all Parties and made publicly available. Above all, Article IX provides that measures adopted at the Consultative Meetings become effective only if all the Parties entitled to take part approve them. A worldwide ban on visiting the continent would therefore have to be adopted unanimously and published, not hidden. National authorities do ask for notification: the US State Department, for example, requests three months' notice before a private expedition. According to the official reading, these duties apply the Treaty's advance-notice rule; they do not prohibit anyone from going.

Official version

  1. Official version

    Article III provides that scientific observations and results from Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available, the opposite of a secrecy rule.

  2. Official version

    Under the Protocol, reports on environmental inspections and other notifications are circulated to all Parties, considered at the next Consultative Meeting and made publicly available.

  3. Official version

    Under Article X, each Party undertakes to make appropriate efforts so that no one engages in any activity in Antarctica contrary to the principles or purposes of the Treaty; this is the clause that makes Parties responsible for their own nationals.

    • The Antarctic Treaty (full text, 1959), Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty, 1 December 1959
      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.
  4. Official version

    Under Article IX, measures recommended at the Consultative Meetings become effective only when approved by all the Contracting Parties entitled to take part, so a continent-wide measure would need the approval of every one of them.

    • The Antarctic Treaty (full text, 1959), Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty, 1 December 1959
      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. Official version

    Article I states that the ban on military measures does not prevent the use of military personnel or equipment for scientific research or any other peaceful purpose, which explains why soldiers and military aircraft are seen on the continent.

    • The Antarctic Treaty (full text, 1959), Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty, 1 December 1959
      The present Treaty shall not prevent the use of military personnel or equipment for scientific research or for any other peaceful purpose.
  6. Official version

    The US State Department asks its citizens to notify it three months before a private expedition, an obligation that implements the Treaty's advance-notice rule rather than a ban on travel.

Play on YouTube (third-party content)
ABC News (Australia) report for the 60th anniversary of the Treaty's signing, on how it has protected the continent from mining and military activity.
ABC News (Australia)
Play on YouTube (third-party content)
Short video "Antarctic Treaty" from the Australian Antarctic Program on the agreements that govern activities in Antarctica and its seas.
@AusAntarctic