respective activities in, and their deliberations regarding 

 Antarctica, the involvement of the relevant specialized 

 agencies and intergovernmental organizations in the Antarctic 

 Treaty system and the significance of the United Nations 

 Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Southern Ocean." 

 The second resolution called attention to the ongoing 

 negotiation of the minerals regime, indicated that any 

 exploitation of resources in Antarctica should ensure the 

 international management and equitable sharing of the 

 benefits of such exploitation, and invited the Antarctic 

 Treaty Consultative Parties to "inform the Secretary General 

 of their negotiations to establish a regime regarding 

 Antarctic minerals." The third resolution noted that South 

 Africa is a Party to the Antarctic Treaty and urged the 

 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties to exclude South Africa 

 from participation in meetings of the Consultative Parties. 



In the view of the United States and the other Antarctic 

 Treaty Consultative Parties, the three resolutions adopted 

 during the Fortieth Session of the General Assembly 

 incorporated elements which seek unjustifiably to call into 

 question the Antarctic Treaty system and to create an 

 artificial dichotomy between that system and the United 

 Nations' system. For these reasons, the great majority of 

 the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties did not participate 

 in the votes on the three resolutions. In explaining their 

 position, Australia, speaking before the General Assembly on 

 behalf of the Consultative Parties, expressed regret that the 

 consensus tradition had been abandoned and indicated that the 

 nature of the resolutions and the way in which they had been 

 adopted would call into question further Consultative Party 

 participation in the Antarctic agenda until consensus was 

 restored. 



The "Question of Antarctica" was raised again during the 

 Forty-first Session of the United Nations General Assembly in 

 December 1986. Again, three resolutions were pushed through 

 by vote. In brief, these resolutions: (1) requested the 

 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties "to keep the Secretary 

 General fully informed on all aspects of the question of 

 Antarctica so that the United Nations could function as the 

 central repository of all such information"; (2) called upon 

 the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties "to impose a 

 moratorium on the negotiations to establish a minerals regime 

 until such time as all members of the international community 

 can participate fully in such negotiations"; (3) appealed to 

 the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties "to take urgent 

 measures to exclude the racist apartheid regime of South 

 Africa from participation in the meetings of the Consultative 

 Parties"; (4) requested the Secretary General to continue to 

 follow all aspects of the question of Antarctica and to 

 provide an updated report thereon at the Forty-second Session 



31 



