FIRST COMMITTEE APPROVES DRAFT TEXT ON ANTARCTICA
Press Release
GA/DIS/3076
FIRST COMMITTEE APPROVES DRAFT TEXT ON ANTARCTICA
19961125 The General Assembly would recognize that the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which provides for, among other things, the demilitarization of Antarctica, the prohibition of nuclear explosions and disposal of nuclear wastes, the freedom of scientific research, and the free exchange of scientific information, was in furtherance of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, under the terms of a draft resolution approved this morning by the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security).The draft text, approved without a vote as the Committee concluded its work for the current Assembly session, would have the Assembly recall that States carrying out scientific activities in the Antarctic should make their research available to the international community, and enhance access to such data by the international scientific community and specialized agencies of the United Nations system.
Following approval of that text, the Committee Chairman recalled the achievements of the session just concluded. He said that it had been a historic year in the field of disarmament. The long-awaited Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was now a reality, and had been signed by 134 States. Also, the sixty-fifth instrument of ratification of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (chemical weapons Convention) had been deposited, triggering the Convention's entry into force. With the signing of the Treaty establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Africa, the Pelindaba Treaty, the African States had brought to a successful conclusion their long-standing efforts to eliminate the nuclear threat to their continent. With that Treaty, and a number of persistent calls for the creation of other nuclear-weapon-free zones in various regions of the world, the issue of such zones -- once considered a "second front" of nuclear disarmament -- had acquired a prominent place on the disarmament agenda.
While nuclear disarmament issues had once again been the focus of the Committee's debates, the destructive potential of conventional weapons had also been given emphasis, he added. In the case of anti-personnel land-mines, for example, the humanitarian aspect of the problem should outweigh all other
considerations. That view was clearly shared by the Committee, which had overwhelmingly supported the draft resolution on an international agreement to ban anti-personnel land-mines. The issue of non-proliferation -- and not only nuclear non-proliferation -- had gained considerable prominence.
That prominence, he said, accurately reflected the instability that preoccupied the majority of Governments. The indiscriminate proliferation of all types of weapons did not take place in a vacuum, but was invariably accompanied by an increase in terrorism, drug trafficking and aggressive separatism, with all the negative consequences that those entailed.
Statements on Antarctica were made by the representatives of the Netherlands, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The representative of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Colombia, Benin and Austria offered closing remarks on behalf of their regional groups.
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Committee Work Programme
When the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) met this morning to begin its consideration of the question of Antarctica, it had before it a draft resolution (A/C.1/51/L.55) proposed by its Chairman. The draft would have the General Assembly recognize that the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which provides for demilitarization of the continent, the prohibition of nuclear explosions and disposal of nuclear wastes, the freedom of scientific research, and the free exchange of scientific information, is in furtherance of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter.
Under the terms of the draft, the Assembly would recall the statement in Agenda 21, adopted at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), that States carrying out scientific activities in the Antarctic continue to ensure that data resulting from such research was freely available to the international community, and enhance access to such data by the international scientific community and specialized agencies of the United Nations system. It would welcome the invitations to the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to attend Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, and welcome the regular extension of information by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties to the Secretary-General on their meetings and their activities in Antarctica.
The report of the Secretary-General on the state of the environment in Antarctica (document A/51/390) surveys the role of the region in the global environmental system, outlines the activities of the Antarctic Treaty system and international bodies active within that system, and summarizes recent findings on the Antarctic environment.
Antarctica, says the report, is the coldest, highest, driest, windiest, remotest and cleanest of continents. Along with the Southern Ocean, the continent plays a critical role in the global environmental system. Its importance was recognized in Agenda 21 of UNCED. The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Madrid Protocol), adopted in 1991 by States Parties to the Antarctic Treaty, designated Antarctica as a "natural reserve, devoted to peace and science". It required that protection of the Antarctic environment and associated ecosystems shall be "fundamental considerations in the planning and conduct of all activities in the Antarctic Treaty area".
Originally signed by 12 States, the Antarctic Treaty now has 43 States Parties and is administered by 26 Consultative Parties, which have demonstrated their capacity to conduct meaningful scientific research on the continent.
The Consultative Parties are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan,
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Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay.
The States Parties to the Treaty are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay.
The Madrid Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty was adopted by 26 States Parties to the Treaty in 1991. By August 1996, 22 of them had deposited instruments of ratification. Ratification by Finland, Japan, Russian Federation and the United States is required for the agreement to enter into full effect.
The Madrid Protocol contains objectives, principles, and the institutional workings of the instrument; a schedule on dispute settlement; and annexes on environmental impact assessment, conservation of fauna and flora, waste disposal and management, prevention of marine pollution, and area protection and management. Articles of the Protocol prohibit mineral resource activities other than scientific research, require prior assessment of all activities in Antarctica, and create a Committee for Environmental Protection.
States Parties to the Antarctic Treaty, says the report, have initiated discussions on a further annex to the Protocol on liability for environmental damage. Pending the entry into force of the Protocol, States Parties have agreed to voluntary implementation of its provisions, while many countries have enacted legislation making the provisions binding on their nationals prior to the agreement coming into international legal effect.
Agreements operating within the Antarctic Treaty System are: the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals; the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources; the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling; and the Global Change Programme Office established by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.
The report also lists scientific activities in the Antarctic. They include monitoring of ozone levels from ground-based stations and satellites, research on pack-ice seals, an expedition to examine the change in ecosystem abundance from the coastal regions to the edge of the polar plateau, studies of the structure and dynamics of the coastal and shelf ecosystems, and recovery of 1,500 metres of drill core from sedimentary strata beneath the sea
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floor in the Ross Sea. Over recent years, says the report, as Antarctic databases have grown in number, size and significance, improvement of the comparability and accessibility of Antarctic scientific data has been considered.
International organizations involved within the system, the report continues, are the World Meteorological Organization, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the United Nations, the World Bank, the United Nations Environmental Programme Global Resource Information Database, the World Conservation Union, and the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition. In June 1992, the States Parties to the Antarctic Treaty convened the First Meeting of Experts on Environmental Monitoring in Antarctica.
Summarizing recent findings on the state of the Antarctic environment, the report states that scientific investigation is the predominant human activity in Antarctica. A preliminary assessment of the levels of scientific and support personnel since 1990 suggests that there has been a reduction in personnel by approximately one third. However, data compilation was hampered by variable quality and timeliness in the reporting by States of those activities.
Antarctica has been a tourist destination for the past 40 years, with more than 60,000 tourists estimated to have visited the area over that time, according to the report. Those include seaborne tourists (those landing from commercial cruises or from yachts), air-landing tourists whose aircraft touch down in the continent, and air-overflight tourists who visit Antarctica by air. The number of tourists visiting Antarctica in the 1995/1996 season is the highest yet recorded. Research on the effects of Antarctic tourism is still in its infancy, the report says, and the level of impact of tourist visits is still uncertain.
The report states that concern over unregulated fishery for Antarctic krill, as well as past exploitation of fur seals and whales, had resulted in adoption of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. Among the Convention's measures are setting allowable catches for targeted species, imposing limits on by-catch of non-target species, and steps to prevent incidental mortality of seabirds. Prior to its coming into force, many Antarctic fish stocks were overexploited.
Antarctica is the least populated and industrialized continent, says the report. Long-range pollutants there originate predominantly from the industrialized areas of the world, in the form of atmospheric pollutants or in snowflakes directly deposited on the snow surface. The Antarctic ice preserves a historical record of the atmosphere, with ice-core studies revealing global changes in trace gases and some pollutants such as lead. Deposition processes are not well understood and assumptions that the
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concentrations seen in snow can be related to the concentrations in the air mass are questionable, but a range of pollutants, including heavy metals and hydrocarbons, have been identified.
The discovery of substantial ozone depletion over Antarctica necessitated a major revision to theories of stratospheric chemistry, the report states. The processes leading to ozone depletion over the polar regions are now broadly understood: chemical reactions on clouds in the stratosphere convert chlorine and bromine from inactive reservoir species into forms which catalytically destroy ozone in the presence of sunlight. Depletion persists until warming of the polar stratosphere removes the stratospheric clouds. Total ozone values over Antarctica in September and October 1995 were extremely low, with the minimum values only slightly higher than the record-low values observed in 1993.
The report lists the latest findings on the extent and thickness of Antarctic sea ice, whose presence and variability constitute "one of the most salient characteristics in the southern hemisphere". The variation in sea-ice coverage -- from four million square kilometres in late summer to almost 20 million square kilometres in late winter -- more than doubles the effective ice-covered area of the continent. The present contribution of the Antarctic ice sheet to sea level rise (an average of six millimetres per year since the last glacial maximum, 18,000 years ago) cannot however, be reliably estimated by treating the continent as a single unit.
In its concluding remarks, the report states that it has not been possible to make a comprehensive synthesis of all literature on the subject and there would be practical benefit from the preparation of a state of the Antarctic environment report. The relevant scientific and technical agencies of the United Nations were ready to assist towards the goal of issuing such a report, as well as to contribute to meeting the goals agreed under Agenda 21 and the common interests both of States Parties to the Antarctic Treaty and non-Antarctic Treaty States.
The Chairman of the Committee, ALYAKSANDR M. SYCHOU (Belarus), said that the question of Antarctica was an issue that had assumed global importance for the world today, as well as for future generations. Antarctica's associated ecosystem and the Southern Ocean played a critical role in the global environmental system. While knowledge about the "white continent" had increased, its full significance, and the intimate and unbreakable interdependence between Antarctica and the rest of the world was just beginning to be appreciated.
He said that the principle environmental concerns in Antarctica were related to changes at the global level, rather than those originating from human activities within the continent. Among the most significant concerns were depletion of the ozone layer and changes in climate. After considerable
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debate in the Committee in past years, it remained clear that Antarctica should forever be used exclusively for peaceful purposes, free of armaments and military installations, as well as tensions and discord.
NICOLAAS BIEGMAN (Netherlands), speaking on behalf of the States Parties to the Antarctic Treaty, recalled that the last time the Assembly had discussed the question of Antarctica was in 1994, when it adopted the resolution without a vote -- a significant improvement on the situation that had existed since 1985. He fully shared the hope that the consensus would be maintained on today's draft text.
The Antarctic Treaty had successfully ensured that the entire area covered by the agreement was used exclusively for peaceful purposes. It had provided the basis for the development of rules on environmental protection that had kept the continent virtually pristine. The adoption in 1991 of the Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection had been a landmark, designating Antarctica as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science. Although the Protocol had not entered into force, it was already being applied in many practical respects.
That situation had not come about overnight, he said. It was the product of a step-by-step process developed over the past 34 years through the successful operation of the Treaty. The Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings were an important element of that process of constant progress. Experts designated by UNEP had participated in the last two such meetings, held in the Republic of Korea in 1995 and in the Netherlands in 1996. They would also be attending the May 1977 Consultative meeting, scheduled for May 1997 in New Zealand.
During its last examination of the question of Antarctica, the Assembly had clearly requested the Secretary-General to submit to it information on Antarctic developments conveyed by the States Parties. Regrettably, the report before the Committee appeared not to be in line with that request. On the one hand UNEP, which prepared the report, had interpreted its mandate more broadly and incorporated information from a variety of sources. On the other hand, the report was incomplete, failing for example to take account of the last Consultative Meeting. The Treaty Parties wished to place on record that the report which UNEP should produce for the fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly was the one referred to in the present draft resolution. As the draft made clear, it should consist only of the information conveyed to the Secretary-General by the States Parties.
He told the Committee that important steps had been taken in the area of environmental monitoring, namely the adoption of checklists for the inspection of vessels and abandoned stations and of waste disposal sites. Moreover, the safe management of radioactive wastes had now been put on the Antarctic agenda. There had been other significant developments in the past two years.
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The entry into force of the Madrid Protocol was now expected in 1997. A group of legal experts had made good progress in elaborating an annex to the Protocol on liability. Moreover, the entry into effect of the Protocol would enhance the process of monitoring the impact of tourism on the Antarctic environment.
Concluding, he said that the Antarctic Treaty system was open to all States. The Parties called upon all States wishing to become involved in activities in the Antarctic to participate in it, and in particular to accede to the Treaty and the Madrid Protocol.
DATUK HASMY AGAM (Malaysia) said that after fourteen years of consideration of Antarctica in the Committee, the international community now had a better understanding of that remote and pristine continent, and of the need for collective efforts to protect its fragile and vulnerable environment for the common benefit of humankind.
Pollution remained a major environmental problem in Antarctica, he said, owing to increased human activity emanating mainly from the operation of research facilities, and the waste disposal those stations produced. Dramatic growth in both the quantity and scope of Antarctic tourism was another concern, which, if left unregulated would lead to cumulative environmental impacts. Indeed, some locations had already begun to show the harmful effects of tourism.
He said his delegation therefore underscored the importance of speedy ratification of the Madrid Protocol, so as to ensure its early entry into force. He welcomed the decision made at the twentieth consultative meeting in Utrecht to undertake consultations with a view to producing an authoritative report on the state of the Antarctic environment. The draft resolution before the Committee, largely based on an updating of General Assembly Resolution 49/80 of 1994, deserved consensus. SUDJADNAN PARNOHADININGRAT (Indonesia) said that since 1983, Member States had spoken on a wide range of issues surrounding Antarctica, among them its role and influence on the atmosphere, oceans, and global biological conditions, as well as on the fragility of its environment. He was gratified that Antarctica continued to serve as a centre for scientific programmes and to foster peaceful cooperation among States. As such, the continent's scientific and environmental values must be accorded high priority. In that context, ratification of the Madrid Protocol would be welcome. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition of non-governmental organizations, which monitored various aspects of the Antarctic Treaty System, should be further encouraged and promoted, he said. The spirit of cooperation between the parties to the treaty and non-signatories would ensure the adoption by consensus of present and future resolutions on the question of Antarctica.
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AHMAD KAMAL (Pakistan) said that Antarctica was a unique ecosystem. For optimal protection of that system, the international community needed a shared vision. The Treaty of 1959 had been designed to achieve two objectives -- ensuring that the area remained closed to all but scientific activities and that its environment remained pristine. To a certain extent, those goals had been achieved. His country had launched a sustained and successful research effort in the area, in the form of a scientific station that focused on, among other things, monitoring the quality of the polar sea and the geophysical mapping of the area around the station. The results of its findings were freely available to the international community.
He regretted that the Madrid Protocol had not been ratified, and that it called for a ban on mining activities for only 50 years. He hoped that the Protocol would be rectified to make such a ban total. He added that unregulated tourism was among the activities most threatening to the fragile Antarctic ecosystem. No regulation existed to curb tourist activity, even though it had been estimated that there were now eight tourists to every three scientists in Antarctica. A comprehensive approach was needed to solve that problem, among many others. He therefore welcomed the suggestion in the report before the Committee that a comprehensive "state of Antarctica" report be prepared and made available. The First Committee should endeavour to contribute to the ultimate goal of preserving Antarctica as a sanctuary for wildlife and scientific cooperation.
ANWARUL KARIM CHOWDHURY (Bangladesh) said Antarctica had aptly been described as part of the global commons and was of vital significance and relevance to the global community. It also afforded an ideal state on which to base monitoring activities for long-range pollutants. There could be no disagreement or discord about the objectives in Antarctica, namely conducting scientific research and using the continent for peaceful purposes. Closer involvement of the United Nations would serve to supplement and strengthen efforts to deepen knowledge about the continent.
Although the Madrid Protocol had not yet entered into force, the States Parties had voluntarily agreed to implement its provisions to the extent practicable, he continued. It was reassuring to learn that the atmospheric growth rates of several major ozone-depleting substances had slowed. However, it was disquieting to learn from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Monitoring Office that it would take until the middle of the next century to reach the levels of those substances that existed prior to recognition of the hole in the ozone layer. Efforts in that regard should, therefore, continue with increased intensity.
Action on Text
The draft resolution on the question of Antarctica was then approved without a vote.
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Closing statement by Chairman
Mr. SYCHOU (Belarus), Chairman of the Committee, outlined what he considered to be the main achievements of the current session. It had been a historic year in the field of disarmament, he said. The long-awaited Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was now a reality, and had been signed by 134 States. The sixty-fifth instrument of ratification of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (chemical weapons Convention) had been deposited, triggering the Convention's entry into force. With the signing of the treaty establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Africa -- the Pelindaba Treaty -- the African States had brought to a successful conclusion their long-standing efforts to eliminate the nuclear threat to their continent.
The current session of the Committee had demonstrated the readiness of Member States to rise to the challenge of a world no longer dominated by the adversarial relations of the cold war era, a world in which the new complexity of security compelled Governments to strike a delicate balance between seemingly contradictory trends. With the signing this year of the Pelindaba Treaty, and a number of persistent calls for the creation of other nuclear-weapon-free zones in various regions of the world, the issue of such zones -- once considered a "second front" of nuclear disarmament -- had acquired a prominent place on the disarmament agenda. Concerning in particular the resolution approved by the Committee on a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East, a difficult and sensitive area, he was gratified that the long-term interests of the States concerned had prevailed, permitting approval of the draft without a vote.
Nuclear disarmament issues had once again been at the centre of the Committee's debates this year, he said. One recent entry into the agenda had been the resolution on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice. Despite the different emphasis placed by States on different aspects of the Court's opinion, he had not detected any serious divergence of views on the issue. Without such broad and general agreement, there could be no hope for success in the future.
He commended the achievement of the Russian Federation and the United States in implementing the bilateral nuclear disarmament agreements concluded between them, and their readiness to continue that process with a new set of offensive arms reductions. But while nuclear disarmament had continued to occupy centre stage, the world had begun to take note of the destructive potential of conventional weapons as well. In the case of anti- personnel land-mines, for example, he believed that the humanitarian aspect of the problem should outweigh all other considerations. That view was clearly shared by the Committee, which had overwhelmingly supported the draft resolution on an international agreement to ban anti-personnel land-mines.
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Two resolutions had been approved on disarmament efforts at the regional and subregional levels, he noted. On the subject of regional and subregional confidence-building, he warned that the issue of non-proliferation -- and not only nuclear non-proliferation -- had gained considerable prominence. That phenomenon, he said, was an accurate reflection of the sources of instability which preoccupied the majority of Governments. The indiscriminate proliferation of all types of weapons did not take place in a vacuum. It was invariably accompanied by an increase in terrorism, drug trafficking and aggressive separatism, with all the negative consequences that those entailed.
He went on to say that while the Committee had been unable to approve by consensus, the draft on the fourth special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament, he was not discouraged by the outcome. He strongly believed that if the issues of proper preparation for the session and the definition of its objectives were resolved, that consensus would be attained.
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