Desarrollo de la Antártica

EL DESARROLLO DE LA ANTÁRTICA acceded, -but there has been no CiJm.mon agreement among fue orí– ginal Twelve about what constitutes "sub8tantial scientific researeh". Nor is it cIear whevher new members need to be invited lO Consul– tative Meetings (and if so, by whom?); or wheth,;;r they p03Se& the automatic right to participa te. Sorne of these governments clearly do not quality to send representatives to Consultative Meetings because they have taken no active part in Antarctic research. But, by their ac– cession to the Treaty, they are, in my view, fully entitled to receive automatically all the informatíon which Consultative -Parties ex– ahange annually. This shouldbe tiJe incentive for governments t-:) accede, even if they have no intention to send an expedition south. By the mere act of accession, they can keep themselves fully and fe– liably informed about current events in the Treaty Area• .In addition to agreement with the principIes and purposes of th~ Treaty, accession also means that certain obligations are underta– ken. We now need to find sorne means to ensure that new members not only approve the Treaty itself but al80 ap;prove and act in ac– cordance witb Recommendations made by Treaty Consultative IMeet– ings. The whole system only makes sense if we can find a way t:J achieve this. All states now posses the legal right to free access fO! scientific purposes to any part of th(' Treaty Area. This right can be exerCÍsed by individuals or by governments. We must try to fínd sorne way to make sure that these new visitors also undertake the obligatíons. The original signatories oí the Treaty all tell eaoh other about their plans and feel free to U>llsult about these. This group naturally resents the activities of outsiders who do not exchange information about their plans or 2ctivities. Some of these make no contribution to our international objectives. What, in law and in practice, are the duties of states which accede to the Treaty? What, we may also ask, are the duties of privately organized expeditions from sta tes w'hich have not acceded to the Treaty? The existing Consultative Parties now have before them the ca– se of Poland, which has established a scientific research station on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands during the past southern summer. Poland has also undert¡¡¡ken a marine programme in the Southern Ocean in 1975-76, and has indicated plans for re– search on a comparable scale in 19717-78 and future years. 'Polauu acceded to the Treaty in 1961. The Polish authorities have given prior notification of tJheir activities and have tried to co-ordinate