Representatives of the nations of the Antarctic Treaty system gather at intervals in Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings to discuss matters relating the management of the Antarctic Treaty area and to further develop the Antarctic Treaty system.

The host government is determined by the alphabetical order of the Consultative Parties (in the English language). Meetings have been held annually since the adoption of the Madrid Protocol in 1991.

Meetings are conducted in the four languages of the Treaty system - English, French, Spanish and Russian. The Rules of Procedure provide for the orderly conduct of the discussions. Decisions of the meetings are normally taken by consensus.

The meeting reports contain a summary of the discussions as well as the text of any Recommendations, Measures, Resolutions and Decisions made by the parties.

Ordinary ATCMs have been held as follows:

• First Consultative Meeting, Canberra, Australia, 10-24 July 1961
• Second Consultative Meeting, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 18-28 July 1962
• Third Consultative Meeting, Brussels, Belgium, 2-13 June 1964
• Fourth Consultative Meeting, Santiago, Chile, 3-18 November 1966
• Fifth Consultative Meeting, Paris, Frnace, 18-29 November 1968
• Sixth Consultative Meeting, Tokyo, Japan, 19-31 October 1970
• Seventh Consultative Meeting, Wellington, New Zealand, 30 October-10 November 1972
• Eighth Consultative Meeting, Oslo, Norway, 9-20 June 1975
• Ninth Consultative Meeting, London, UK, 19 September-7 October 1977
• Tenth Consultative Meeting, Washington, USA, 17 September-5 October 1979
• Eleventh Consultative Meeting, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 23 June-7 July 1981
• Twelfth Consultative Meeting, Canberra, Australia, 13-27 September 1983
• Thirteenth Consultative Meeting, Brussels, Belgium, 8-18 October 1985
• Fourteenth Consultative Meeting, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 15-16 October 1987
• Fifteenth Consultative Meeting, Paris, France, 9-20 October 1989
•  Sixteenth Consultative Meeting, Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany , 7-18 October 1991
•  Seventeenth Consultative Meeting, Venice, Italy, 11-20 November 1992
•  Eighteenth Consultative Meeting, Kyoto, Japan, 11-22 April 1994
•  Nineteenth Consultative Meeting, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 8-19 May 1995
•  Twentieth Consultative Meeting, Utrecht, Netherlands, 29 April-10 May 1996
•  Twenty-first Consultative Meeting, Christchurch, New Zealand, 19-30 May 1997
•  Twenty-second Consultative Meeting, Tromso, Norway, 25 May-5 June 1998

The Twenty-third Consultative Meeting will be held in Lima, Peru, 24 May-4 June 1999.