Compared to other international agreements the Treaty is remarkably short – just 14 articles. But it conveys powerful principles and at its core is Article IV, an elegant solution to the sovereignty issue.
During the life of the Treaty it precludes new or enlarged claims and prevents activities from enhancing or detracting from existing claims. It thus holds the status quo by protecting the interests of all Parties: those who made sovereign claims, those who reserved the right to claim, and those who reject claims completely. Its simplicity is that it did not set aside the claims – it just sets aside arguments about them. This is one reason why the continent has never seen war.
The Treaty is founded on the principle in its opening paragraph – that it is in the interests of world that the region be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and that Antarctica should never be the scene or object of international discord. It prohibits military manoeuvres, weapons testing and disposing of nuclear waste.
The Treaty applies to the area south of 60°South and thus covers a vast region. Importantly, the Treaty is as much about rights as it is about obligations. For example, it is a Party’s right to undertake research anywhere they like in Antarctica and have scientific results made freely available. In addition, at any time Parties can inspect the activities and stations of others. In this sense it became the world’s first armaments inspection regime, although in practice inspections are used mainly for environmental compliance.
Such a short Treaty could not possibly cover all the activities that needed governing. It therefore provided for Parties to meet and adopt measures to advance the scope of the Treaty regime. These meetings comprise the original 12 Parties to the Treaty, plus states that have subsequently acceded to the Treaty.
There are now 53 Parties, of which 29 are the so-called Consultative Parties entitled to participate in decision-making. This provides an additional and potentially far-reaching right – to initiate significant change in the way the Treaty approaches the region’s management. The consultative meetings have thus been used to launch discussions leading to entirely new agreements, including:
Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals 1978
Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources 1980
Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities 1988 (this convention is unlikely to enter into force – article on Mining in Antarctica)
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