ABSTRACT
Claims to sectors of Antarctica have been made by Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand and Norway, which recognize each other’s claims, and by Argentina and Chile, whose claims are overlapping, and also overlap Britain’s. In 1959 these nations, and Belgium, Japan, South Africa, the Soviet Union and the United States, signed the Antarctic Treaty. Later, 30 other nations signed the treaty; by 1996 half of these had mounted enough research activity to obtain full voting rights alongside the original 12 ‘consultative parties’. The treaty banned military activity and new territorial claims. All research bases were to be open to inspection.
