Spitsbergen Treaty
The Spitsbergen Treaty of February 9, 1920, recognises the full and absolute sovereignty of Norway over the arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen (now called Svalbard). The exercise of sovereignty is, however, subject to certain stipulations, and not all Norwegian law applies. The treaty only partly demilitarizes Svalbard. All signatories were given equal rights to engage in commercial activities (mainly coal mining) on the islands. Currently (2007) Norway and Russia are utilising this right.
There were nine original High Contracting Parties, including: the United States, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands[1], Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (including overseas dominions of Ireland, Canada, Australia, India, South Africa and New Zealand). Several additional nations signed within the next five years before the treaty came into force, including the Soviet Union in 1924 and Germany and China in 1925. There are now over 40 signatories.
Of the original signatories Japan was the last to ratify the treaty on 2 August 1925. Subsequently, on 14 August 1925, the treaty came into force.[2] Norway then took over sovereign governorship and immediately enacted a series of environmental protection measures.
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Disputes
There has been a long-running dispute, primarily between Norway and the Soviet Union (and now Russia) over fishing rights in the region.[3][4] In 1977, Norway established a regulated fishery in a 200-nautical-mile (370 km) zone around Svalbard (though it did not close the zone to foreign access).[3] It argues that the treaty's provisions of equal economic access only apply to the islands and their territorial waters (4 nautical miles at the time), but not to the wider Exclusive Economic Zone; in addition, it argues that the continental shelf is a part of mainland Norway's continental shelf, and should be governed by the 1958 Continental Shelf Convention.[4] The Soviet Union and now Russia dispute this position and consider the Spitsbergen Treaty to apply to the entire zone; talks were held in 1978 in Moscow, but did not resolve the issue.[3] Finland and Canada support Norway's position, while most of the other treaty signatories have expressed no official position.[3] The relevant parts of the treaty go as follows:
Ships and nationals of all the High Contracting Parties shall enjoy equally the rights of fishing and hunting in the territories specified in Article 1 and in their territorial waters. (from Article 2)
They shall be admitted under the same conditions of equality to the exercise and practice of all maritime, industrial, mining or commercial enterprises both on land and in the territorial waters, and no monopoly shall be established on any account or for any enterprise whatever. (from Article 3)
Signatories
According to this outdated list (sorted alphabetically); dates below reflect when the signatory nation ratified the treaty, which was often years after a national official actually first signed on:
- Afghanistan (1925-11-23)
- Albania (1930-04-29)
- Argentina (1927-05-06)
- Australia (1923-12-29)
- Austria (1930-03-12)
- Belgium (1925-05-27)
- Bulgaria (1925-10-20)
- Canada (1923-12-29)
- Chile (1928-12-17)
- China (1925-07-01)
- Denmark (1924-01-24)
- Dominican Republic (1927-02-03)
- Egypt (1925-09-13)
- Estonia (1930-04-07)
- Finland (1925-08-12)
- France (1924-09-06)
- Germany (1925-11-16)
- Greece (1925-10-21)
- Hungary (1927-10-29)
- Iceland (1994-05-31)
- India (1923-12-29)
- Italy (1924-08-06)
- Japan (1925-04-02)
- Monaco (1925-06-22)
- Netherlands (1920-09-03)
- New Zealand (1923-12-29)
- Norway (1924-10-08)
- Poland (1931-09-02)
- Portugal (1927-10-24)
- Romania (1925-07-10)
- Russia (1935-05-07)
- Saudi Arabia (1925-08-14)
- South Africa (1923-12-29)
- Spain (1925-11-12)
- Sweden (1924-09-15)
- Switzerland (1925-06-30)
- USA (1924-04-02)
- United Kingdom (1923-12-29)
- Venezuela (1928-02-08)
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This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
See also
References
Notes
- ^ On Dutch interest and historical claims see Muller, Hendrik, ‘Nederland’s historische rechten op Spitsbergen’, Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap 2e serie, deel 34 (1919) no. 1, 94-104.
- ^ Svalbard Treaty and Ratification (in Norwegian)
- ^ a b c d Alex G. Oude Elferink (1994). The Law of Maritime Boundary Delimitation: A Case Study of the Russian Federation. Martinus Nijhoff. pp. 230–231.
- ^ a b Willy Østreng (1986). "Norway in Northern Waters". in Clive Archer & David Scrivener. Northern Waters: Security and Resource Issues. Routledge. pp. 165–167.
Literature
- Moe, Arild; Schei, Peter Johan (2005-11-18) (PDF). The High North – Challenges and Potentials.. Prepared for French-Norwegian Seminar at IFRI, Paris, 24 November 2005. Fridtjof Nansen Institute (www.fni.no). http://www.ifri.org/files/Schei.pdf. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
External links
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Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
- Treaty between Norway, The United States of America, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland and the British overseas Dominions and Sweden concerning Spitsbergen signed in Paris 9th February 1920. (In Norwegian, English and French, click "Original tekst".)
- Treaty Concerning the Archipalego of Spitsbergen
- Svalbard Treaty and Ratification (in Norwegian)
- Svalbard – an important arena - Speech by Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 15 April 2006.
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