APATHY, DELAY OR OBSTRUCTION?

It was assumed that ratification and implementation would be a brief formality. But to date two nations, Russia, and Japan, have still not ratified and only seven nations have actually passed specific detailed legislation outlining precisely how the Protocol will be applied and the sanctions which will be applied in the case of Protocol violation. Until these two nations which have not yet ratified do so, the conservation of Antarctica remains at risk.

The US ratified last week (April 1997). Their slow progress towards ratification was described as "embarrassing". For other countries which have yet to ratify, failure of the US to complete the process was always cited as though it somehow legitimised the failure of other nations to do it themselves. It took years of negotiation for the US Administration and environmental groups to agree on legislation. There is hope that, as an old hand and major player of the Antarctic Treaty System and currently the sole remaining superpower, US ratification (April 1997) should provide the momentum to finally secure complete international ratification of the Protocol.

RUSSIA

The situation in Russia is not straightforward. The political and economic changes in recent years have had a near crippling effect on the administration and there are over one hundred International Treaties and Protocols awaiting ratification.

There are also specific technical difficulties with drafting the Antarctic legislation that have further slowed things down. It appears that Russian ratification legislation would be the first domestic law ever to have jurisdiction over Russians outside Russia. This precedent has created consternation in Russian legal circles and the implications of the precedent are still being examined by constitutional lawyers.

However, this could always be a convenient smoke screen for the Russian Government to hide behind. Owing to the poor state of Russian Antarctic science bases, the inevitable expenditure commitment would be necessary for the clean-up costs that would be needed to conform to the conditions of the Protocol. It is accepted across the Treaty system that a phased clean-up of Russian bases over the next few years would be acceptable. It is also not inconceivable that help from other Antarctic nations might be forthcoming. The hope is that members of other delegations to the ATCM in Utrecht will find ways of encouraging Russian progress.

JAPAN

A bureaucratic logjam is the official reason for the delay in Japanese legislation. Ministry officials argue that it is taking longer than expected to interpret the original English-language text of the Protocol because of its sheer length and the complexity of the issues involved. It would seem that in fact the problem is that the Japanese Government has simply failed to make ratification a priority. A full scale campaign is being mounted in Japan by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature under the auspices of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) to ensure that Japan does make ratification a priority. However, it seems unlikely that full Japanese ratification will happen before next year.