A joint resolution calling for the United States to encourage immediate negotiations toward a new agreement among Antarctic Treaty Consultative parties, for the full protection of Antarctica as a global ecological commons.

Declares that: (1) Antarctica is a global ecological commons and should be subject to new agreements or protocols which supplement the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 providing for comprehensive environmental protection of Antarctica and which should for an indefinite period establish Antarctica as a region closed to commercial minerals development and related activities; (2) under such new agreements, information about minerals or other resources in Antarctica should be obtained under strictly controlled arrangements and should be openly shared in the international scientific community; (3) the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities does not guarantee protection of the environment of Antarctica and could stimulate commercial exploitation; (4) pending the negotiations and entry into force of a new agreement or protocol ensuring the full protection of Antarctica as a global ecological commons, the Convention should not be presented to the the Senate for advice and consent to ratification; (5) until such new agreements enter into force, the United States should support the interim restraint measures presently in force among the Consultative Parties to the Treaty; and (6) the negotiation of such new agreements or protocols should be supported by the United States at the November 1990 meeting of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties in Santiago, Chile.

Congressional Research Service · 1990-10-04