§ Mr. JoplingI beg to move amendment No. 2, in page 6, line 19, after 'Protocol' insert
'and to any measures for the implementation of the Protocol that have become effective by virtue of paragraph 4 of Article IX of the Antarctic Treaty'.The House will recall that, in Committee, the hon. Member for Islington, North (Mr. Corbyn) tabled an amendment to clause 15 which would have required the Secretary of State to have regard to any guidelines or criteria that might be developed under the protocol. The problem with that amendment was that the Secretary of State would have been required to have regard to guidelines or criteria which might not have been accepted by the United Kingdom or by other parties to the protocol.The Secretary of State should be required to have regard only to those instruments that have equivalent legal status to the protocol, by which I mean that they are binding on all parties to the protocol. A close examination of the protocol and its annexes reveals that the only such instruments are measures that have become effective by virtue of paragraph 4 of article IX of the Antarctic treaty.
The House will remember that article 10(1)(b) of the protocol contains a general provision for such measures to be adopted for the implementation of the protocol. Article 6 of annexe V of the protocol provides also for management plans for Antarctic specially protected and managed areas to be approved by such measures. The measures become effective only—this is the key point—when, in accordance with paragraph 4 of article IX of the Antarctic treaty, they have been approved by all the Antarctic treaty consultative parties, all of whom will have to become parties to the protocol, as we have already discussed, before it enters into force.
The amendment reflects that situation. The Secretary of State would have to have regard to any measures adopted for the implementation of the protocol that have become effective. I hope that the hon. Member for Islington, North, who helpfully tabled an amendment in Committee allowing us to discuss the matter and to think about it again, will feel that we have gone some way to meeting his point and clarifying the position.
§ Mr. CorbynI understand the point. I tabled an amendment in Committee on the matter, and I would have been happier if it had been accepted then, although I understand that we are making progress on the point. Paragraph 4 of article IX of the 1959 Antarctic treaty says:
The measure referred to in this article shall become effective when approved by all the contracting parties whose representatives are entitled to participate at the meetings held to consider these matters.Article I refers to a meeting to be held in Canberra, Australia, within two months of December 1959, when the treaty was finally agreed. There were regular meetings thereafter. The treaty makes a number of points about the Antarctic being a peaceful place, about scientific research, about co-operation on research, about inspection, about jurisdiction in Antarctica and about the preservation and conservation of living resources. The amendment would ensure that paragraph 4 was carried out.587 I do not follow the point made by the right hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr. Jopling) when he said that measures that were not agreed to by the British Government would not be carried out, and that only those that were the subject of consensus would be carried out.
I thought that the whole treaty was based on consensus and that it therefore would not be possible for a protocol to be published in accordance with the treaty which did not have the consent of all the treaty partners. The question whether the British Government agreed with it all would be irrelevant, because clearly they must have agreed to it or it could not have become a protocol within the terms of the 1959 treaty.
§ Mr. JoplingI hope that I can help the hon. Member by saying again that the measures become effective only when, in accordance with paragraph 4, they have been approved by all the Antarctic treaty consultative parties. Those are the same 26 parties, as I tried to explain, who all have to agree to the protocol before it becomes effective. I hope that they will all do so this year. As the hon. Gentleman knows, the reason why we are debating the Bill now is to allow Britain to ratify the protocol during 1994.
§ Mr. CorbynI understand that point. I hope that we shall ratify the protocol during 1994, and that the whole thing will be brought into operation. I shall return to that point on Third Reading.
§ Amendment agreed to.