GA Antarctic Territorial Claims

Forum: The General Assembly Fourth Committee Issue: The Question of Antarctic Territorial Claims Student Officer: Shwe Pan Gyee Introduction Antarctica is the largest and the only uninhabited continent and in the world and is also deemed as a desert. Since the discovery of the continent, countries have been claiming parts of the continent by leading and financing expeditions to have their territorial claims. With the claim over the Antarctic territories, the nation-states that have made their claim have used the land for the expansion of their empire, military training, the testing of chemical weapons and scientific research on wildlife, astronomy, weather, and geology. Due to the benefits that come along with having the claim over the Antarctic territories, there is an increase in the expeditions that were sent out by countries to have their territorial claims in Antarctica. This later led to disputes between nation-states regarding the fight for the Antarctic lands. In the effort of eradicating the issue of disputes between the countries over the Antarctic territories, a treaty by the name of the Antarctic Treaty was established. This treaty is the result of 12 nation-states coming into the consensus of having Antarctica to be used only for peaceful practice and scientific research. It also does not acknowledge the past territorial claims and forbids new claims and the expansion of the pre-existing claims to have a form of the jurisdiction in Antarctica. The treaty also banned military training and the testing of weapons in the effort of having preservation of the Antarctic continent. To ensure that the natural reserves are being protected, The Antarctic Treaty's Environmental Protocol was put into place. Though the treaty is successful in establishing peaceful relations concerning the question of the Antarctic territorial claims, it does not fully answer the question of jurisdiction in Antarctica. An increase in the number of parties under the treaty is seen as time progresses. With more nation-states acting as the Consultative Parties in Antarctica, more human activity in the continent is consequently present. Human activity in Antarctica poses the risk of causing harm and damage to Antarctica, ultimately worsening the status of global warming and climate change, especially when taking into the concern of the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. Definition of Key Terms Antarctica Antarctica is the largest continent in the entire world that does not have a native human inhabitation. With the Australian continent being half the size of Antarctica, Antarctica is ranked the fifth-largest continent in the world with 5,500,000 square miles. Located in the South Pole, it is the biggest holder of freshwater as it contains 80% of the freshwater reserves of the world. With the Antarctic ice averaging at around the thickness of 1.9 km, they cover around 98% of the continent. Though the continent is now under the government of the parties of the Antarctic Treaty, it holds the record of being the last region that was discovered on Earth up to this date. Territorial Claim A territorial claim is the assertion of ownership over a specific territory or district as 'territory' is a specific district and 'claiming' is the act of asserting ownership over something as one's possession. Throughout history, nations and countries alike have taken ownership over different areas of land to expand their empire or nation. This is considered as a territorial claim. Territorial claims typically lead to territorial disputes where nations fight over a specific piece of land which could result in non-peaceful events such as war. Jurisdiction Jurisdiction is the power to make constitutionally legal decisions of which the legal authority of an institution extends to. A person or a group of whom have jurisdiction has the administration and responsibility to have justice in their perspective fields that they have jurisdiction over. An example would be the three different areas of jurisdictions in the United States of America of which are local level, state level, and the federal level. For one, the jurisdiction to implement and make changes to the federal law is present in the court. Sovereignty A self-governing nation-state which is typically referred to as a country where the nation- state itself is its central authority is considered to be sovereign. A country of whom is sovereign is considered to have sovereignty. Sovereignty can also be defined as independence as a sovereign state has control and authority over itself and is not under the control of another nation, country or state. Though 'sovereignty' is also considered as a royal position or rank, mostly concerning royalty, in the case of this issue of the Antarctic territorial claims, the usage of sovereignty refers to independence and central authority. The Atlantic Treaty The Atlantic Treaty is a treaty signed on December 1, 1959 "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."1 The 12 parties that originally signed it are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union otherwise known as Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Additional parties that have signed over time are Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Monaco, Mongolia, Netherlands, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The treaty aims to have regulation over the international relations that take place concerning the Antarctic continent to avoid any territorial disputes or conflicts between nations. The treaty ensures that only peaceful actions are to be taken place at the continent while also allowing scientific research to be conducted as long as no harm is being exposed to the wellbeing of the continent itself. To protect the natural landscape of Antarctica, the treaty also bans military training and weapons testing on the Antarctic grounds. Signatory A party, typically a nation-state or a constitution, that has signed to be part of an agreement. For the most part, the agreements come in the form of a document of which a signatory physically signs to. This means that the signatory will have to abide by the legislation of the signed treaty. Signatories are to politically support their signed treaties at all costs and must have the will to continuously have engagement with the treaty. Party A state that is bounded by a treaty and has to follow the rules and regulations of the treaty is known as a party of the treaty. To be a party, the state will have to give their consent to officially become a part of a treaty. The treaty will be enforced onto the parties that are a part of 1 The Antarctic Treaty 1 Dec 1959, https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/entri/texts/acrc/at.txt.html. a treaty. However, a party does not sign the treaty to be under the binding of a treaty as the signing of a treaty will make them a signatory. Whaling Stations Whaling station is a term used to describe a dock where the processing of the carcasses of whales occurs. This action occurs after whale hunting, which is illegal and prohibited for the most part. In some cases, whaling stations are also the place where whale hunters live. An example of a whaling station is the Oasis Station which was later renamed A. B. Dobrowolski Station. This whaling station is located in Bunger Hills, Knox Coast but is now abandoned. History The Discovery of Antarctica On January 27th of 1820, Antarctica was first discovered during a Russian Expedition. Led by Mikhail Lazarev and Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, the explorers sighted an iceberg which is later known as the Fimbul Ice Shelf at the Princess Martha Coast. A British expedition then follows three days later on January 30, 1820. Led by Edward Bransfield, the captain of the expedition, the Trinity Peninsula was sighted. The main Antarctic land was not sighted until on November 17th of 1820 by Nathaniel Palmer, an American sealer. A year later, the first landing on Antarctica occurred as John Davis, an American captain, set his foot on the Antarctic land. Later on, during the early 20th century, the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration started with numbers of numerous expeditions that were set into a sail in with the attempt to reach the South Pole. These expeditions, however, resulted in a mass amount of death and injury of the explorers. Territorial Claims British Claims In the South Atlantic territories, the United Kingdom asserted its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in 1883. The United Kingdom then later expanded its territorial claim in 1908 by also claiming the South Orkneys, South Georgia, Graham's Land, Sandwich Islands, South Shetlands and the south of the 50th parallel of south latitude of the Antarctic continent. Though it was administered in the Falkland Islands Dependencies, it was later closed down as whale hunting by commercial operators were occurring in the official territories. The British later attempted to expand the British Empire onto the Antarctic continent by stating that the whole continent of Antarctica should be under the rule of the British Empire. To achieve the expansion of the empire over the entire continent, an Order in Council which is under the British Settlements Act 1887 was passed by the British government, which established the Ross Dependency's new borders. The Enderby Land was also claimed by the United Kingdom in 1930 and 1931, the Statute of Westminster was passed, resulting in the withdrawal of the United Kingdom's control over the New Zealand government and the Australian government.

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