Resolution on Antarctica ADOPTED!

On May 11th, the first Official session was held at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Room 21, where 31 delegations gathered and discussed the first agenda item, which was the issue of Antarctica as the heritage of human mankind.

Session started with establishing the general speaker list where countries presented their position regarding the first agenda item. In this first part of the session, states stressed a need to ensure a more comprehensive protection to the Antarctic environment as one of the most precious world's continents. In the context of the territorial claims Bulgaria, Malaysia and Cameroon stated that although several countries claim sovereignty in certain regions they should keep in mind provisions of the Antarctic Treaty where is written down that continent belongs to everyone.

A motion to present the only Draft Resolution was proposed quite at the beginning of the session. With 23 votes for and 8 against, the session moved on to the discussion of the approved Draft resolution submitted by the Alliance for Common Interest of Mankind. Their Draft Resolution was the only one which was submitted in accordance with the Rules of Procedure. There were rumors that beside the Alliance for Common Interest of Mankind’s Draft Resolution another coalition as well submitted their version, but was rejected by Presiding Officer.

To the representative of Kenya, as a member of Alliance for Common Interest of Mankind, was given the opportunity to present their Draft Resolution in which they proposed the establishment of UN Antarctica Agency funded by Japan and The Republic of Finland. The UNAA headquartered in Tokyo would supervise and coordinate all activities in Antarctica. Peace and security, science and technology and environmental protection are more or less basic priorities of all states regarding the issue of Antarctica. To this end, these three areas would represent the main pillars on which the proposed body – UNAA – would operate. The questions that the Representative of Kenya received after presenting the document were addressing: decision-making process within the UNAA, the composition of the structure of the new monitoring body and financing. The representative of United States did not see any purpose in establishing this new body, as he stated it makes no sense establishing it because we already have The Antarctic Treaty System which was declared to be one of the most successful international agreements. Despite the fact that some countries were quite sceptical regarding provisions of the document, the discussion slowly moved forward. Later on, states were proposing amendments to the Draft Resolution. The Representative of China, after the consultation with states – signatories and non-signatories of the document - proposed the structure of UNAA that would be the most appropriate according to the current regulation of Antarctic area. The body would therefore consist of the Council and of plenary Assembly. The Council would consist of 35 states – 25 permanent states that invested the most in scientific researches and discoveries in Antarctica so far, and 10 non-permanent states elected every two year by General Assembly – on the other side the Assembly would consist of all member states of United Nations. With few amendments and some modifications of the articles within the proposed document, the Draft Resolution was adopted.

The management of Antarctica with the new Resolution remains under the purposes and principles of the Antarctic Treaty System and as such in the interest of international cooperation for the benefits of mankind. The document encourages continued international cooperation in scientific research and prohibits military activities, nuclear tests and dumping of the contaminated materials as it is already regulated within the Antarctic Treaty. Antarctica remains recognized as a natural reserve, dedicated to peace and science where states agreed on the need to reduce the human impact in order to protect its ecosystem.

As we can see, the Resolution is based on already existing provisions that states accepted in The Antarctic Treaty and its Antarctic-Environmental Protocol. On this basis states agreed to go further and establish new body – UNAA – that will fully cooperate with United Nations and provide more comprehensive protection for the Antarctic continent.

During the session states have shown a strong willingness to protect Antarctic’s ecosystem. They had put its national interests aside and tried to achieve the best possible option that would be acceptable for all mankind. We strongly believe new accepted measures and establishment of new monitoring body – UNAA – will provide additional protection for this precious continent. For the end, we can only hope that Antarctica would never represent a bone of contention for states but only a nice example of successful international cooperation.

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