The ATS on the Web: Introducing Modern Information Technology in Antarctic Affairs

Abstract

When the Twenty-second Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting was hosted by Norway in the Spring of 1998, only few months after entry into force of the Environmental Protocol,¹ an excerpt from the Final Report from that meeting stated the following:

Norway introduced Working Paper (XXII ATCM/WP 25) proposing that an ATCM home page be established on the World Wide Web, with the purpose of assisting future ATCM Host Governments in pre-sessional circulation of documents, as well as enabling easier access to information about the Antarctic and the Antarctic Treaty system to the general public. The Meeting expressed support for the Norwegian initiative and adopted Resolution 5 (1998).²

Article FootNote

¹Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, which entered into force on 14 January 1998; text reproduced in ILM, Vol. 30, 1991, pp. 1,461ff.

Article FootNote

²Para. 22 of the Final Report of the Twenty-second Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, Tromso, Norway, 25 May — 5 June 1998 (Oslo: Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1998). The matter was discussed under agenda item 5(c), ‘Operation of the Antarctic Treaty System: Consequences of the Entry into Force of the Protocol on Environmental Protection and Related Issues’.