Svalbard Treaty

Svalbard Treaty

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Svalbard Treaty

The Treaty concerning Spitsbergen of February 9 1920 declared the arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen (now called Svalbard) an overseas part of the Kingdom of Norway (article 1). However, as part of the compromise with the signatories, despite Norwegian sovereignty not all Norwegian law applies. The treaty only partly demilitarizes Svalbard. All signatories were given equal rights to engage in commercial activities (mainly coal mining) on the islands. Currently (2007) Norway and Russia are utilising this right.

The original signatories include Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, ^[1] Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom (including overseas dominions) and the United States. The Soviet Union signed in 1924 and Germany in 1925. There are now over 40 signatories.

Of the original signatories Japan was the last to ratify the treaty on 2 August 1925. Subsequently, on 14 August 1925, the treaty came into power. ^[2] Norway then took over sovereign governorship and immediately enacted a series of environmental protection measures.

There has been a long-running dispute, primarily between Norway and the Soviet Union (and now Russia) over fishing rights in the region.^[3]^[4] In 1977, Norway established a regulated fishery in a zone around Svalbard (though it did not close the zone to foreign access).^[3] It argues that the treaty's provisions of equal economic access only apply to the islands and their territorial waters, but not to the wider Exclusive Economic Zone; in addition, it argues that the continental shelf is a part of mainland Norway's continental shelf, and should be governed by the 1958 Continental Shelf Convention.^[4] The Soviet Union and now Russia dispute this position and consider the Svalbard Treaty to apply to the entire zone; talks were held in 1978 in Moscow, but did not resolve the issue.^[3] Finland supports Norway's position on the matter, while most of the rest of the treaty's signatories have expressed no official position.^[3]