South Africa: Implementing the Protocol on Environmental Protection

Abstract

South Africa was among the twelve original parties to the 1959 Antarctic Treaty.¹ As a non-claimant, yet geographically proximate state to the Antarctic, successive political leaders have argued passionately that the Republic has an interest in shaping the future politics of the polar continent. During the apartheid era, the meetings within the fora of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) and related bodies such as the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) provided a relatively benign forum for South Africa’s participation in segments of international politics. Since the mid-1980s, however, this position started to be questioned by some Third World countries, following up the initiative by Malaysia in the UN General Assembly, which resulted in a debate not only about the future status of the ATS but also whether South Africa should remain a member, given its record of human rights abuses and racist governance.²In May 1993, one publication from the then Department of Environment Affairs (DEA) acknowledged the following:

During a time when South Africa found many doors closed in the international political arena, the Antarctic Treaty Council Meetings [sic] remained open. Excellent international relations were established, and South Africa found support from Treaty member countries.³

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* I owe a debt of gratitude to the officials affiliated with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and the Department of Foreign Affairs in Pretoria for their assistance. Thanks to David Simon and to the participants in the workshop of the project ‘Implementing the Environmental Protection Regime for the Antarctic’, held at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway, 3-6 September 1999, for their advice. Special thanks are due to Kees Bastmeijer for his advice on South African law. I would also like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Board for funding a period of research leave in 1998-99.

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¹ UNTS, Vol. 402, pp. 71ff.

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² See P. Beck, International Politics of Antarctica (London: Croom Helm, 1986); and P. Beck and K. Dodds, Why Study Antarctica? (CEDAR Discussion Paper Series Number 26, Royal Holloway, University of London, 1998). For details on South Africa’s geopolitical and legal interests in Antarctica see, K. Dodds, ‘South Africa and the Antarctic, 1920-1960’, Polar Record, Vol. 32, 1996, pp. 25-42; and K. Dodds, Geopolitics in Antarctica: Views from the Southern Oceanic Rim (Chichester: Wiley, 1997), pp. 185-212.

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³ Draft Comprehensive Environment Evlauation (CEE) of the Proposed New SANE IV Facility at Vesleskarvet, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica (Pretoria: Department of Environment Affairs, 1993) p. 3.