Bill submitted on joining Antarctic Treaty

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Minister of Justice D.Dorligjav Friday submitted to parliament a draft law on joining the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). Mongolia started sending its experts to Russian, Bulgarian, Spanish, Chilean and Argentinian international research teams on Antarctica in 1972-1974. By this our researchers have contributed to scientific works on global climate change, weather forecast preparation, and sea water and minerals researches. The ATS regulates international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude. The treaty, entering into force in 1961 and as of 2012 having 50 parties, sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation and bans military activity on that continent. The main treaty was opened for signature on December 1 of 1959, and officially entered into force on June 23 of 1961. The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957–58. The twelve countries had significant interests in Antarctica at the time: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries had established over 50 Antarctic stations for the IGY. The treaty was a diplomatic expression of the operational and scientific cooperation that had been achieved "on the ice". As of 2014, there are 50 states party to the treaty, 29 of which, including all 12 original signatories to the treaty, have consultative (voting) status. Consultative members include the seven nations that claim portions of Antarctica as national territory. The 43 non-claimant nations either do not recognize the claims of others, or have not stated their positions.