The Antarctic Treaty (1959)

Assembled from 40 blocks · 1 evidence · 51 related

1. Story
2. Signed at Washington on 1 December 1959 by the twelve states then active in Antarctic science, and in force from 23 June 1961. It does two things that almost no other instrument does. Article I reserves the continent exclusively for peaceful purposes and prohibits military bases, manoeuvres and weapons testing; Article IV freezes the territorial question, so that nothing done while the treaty is in force counts as asserting, supporting or denying a claim, and no new claim may be made. Seven states had claims - three of them overlapping on the Antarctic Peninsula - and one large sector was claimed by nobody; none of that was resolved, and the treaty works precisely because it was not. Article VII gives every consultative party the right to inspect any station, installation or ship of any other, anywhere, at any time, and the inspection right has been exercised. Accession is open to any state, but a voice in decisions requires demonstrating substantial scientific activity there.
3. Knowledge
4. Antarctica
5. The Antarctic Treaty (1959)
6. The International Geophysical Year puts twelve nations on the ice at once
7. Connections
8. Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
9. The International Geophysical Year puts twelve nations on the ice at once
10. Antarctica
11. Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Madrid Protocol, 1991)
12. The Svalbard Treaty (1920)
13. McMurdo Station
14. The Antarctic Treaty is signed at Washington
15. The Antarctic Treaty enters into force
16. The Madrid Protocol prohibits Antarctic mining
17. The Antarctic Treaty (1959)
18. Antarctica
19. Vostok Station
20. McMurdo Station
21. Arctic Ocean
22. Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC)
23. Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri)
24. Halley Bay Emperor Penguin Colony
25. The Antarctic Treaty (1959)
26. McMurdo Station
27. Vostok Station
28. Cook crosses the Antarctic Circle
29. Antarctica is sighted - by whom is disputed
30. Amundsen reaches the South Pole
31. Scott reaches the South Pole and finds he is second
32. The International Geophysical Year puts twelve nations on the ice at once
33. The Antarctic Treaty is signed at Washington
34. The continuous satellite sea-ice record begins
35. Vostok records minus 89.2 degrees Celsius
36. Antarctic sea ice reaches a record low, a year after the previous one
37. The Madrid Protocol becomes open to a review conference
38. Southern Ocean
39. Evidence
40. The Treaty reserves Antarctica for peaceful purposes and prohibits military activity (Article I), guarantees freedom of scientific investigation, freezes the territorial claims question so that no act while it is in force constitutes a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim and no new claim may be made (Article IV), applies to the area south of 60 degrees south (Article VI), and provides for inspection of all stations, installations and equipment by observers designated by consultative parties (Article VII). V55 VERIFICATION BASIS: this session had NO working research channel - WebFetch to ats.aq was refused by the network egress proxy and the WebSearch budget was exhausted before production began. The citation rests on the producer's prior knowledge of the treaty text, not on consultation during production, and must be opened before publication.