Seabed contract
The Seabed Treaty (Treaty on the Prohibition of the Attachment of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Seabed and in the Seabed) is an international agreement between the United States , the Soviet Union , Great Britain and 84 other states, which regulates the attachment of weapons of mass destruction or of facilities, that serve to store, test or use these weapons are prohibited on the seabed or in the seabed beyond the territorial sea . The treaty also provides for the right of member states to control all activities of another member state on the seabed, including outside the territorial sea.
Just as in the Antarctic Treaty , the Outer Space Treaty and the treaties on nuclear-free zone , the objective of the seabed Treaty, international conflicts and nuclear weapons away from areas that serve the good of all humanity.
In the 1960s, technical progress in the field of oceanography and the increasing worldwide interest in the mining of mineral resources in the deep sea fueled fears that there could be an arms race between the nuclear powers on the high seas .
The General Assembly of the United Nations set up an ad hoc committee on December 18, 1967, at the suggestion of the Ambassador of Malta, with the aim of working out ways for the peaceful use of the seabed. The following year the committee was made permanent. During this time, maritime law issues with military implications were dealt with by the Eighteen Nation Disarmament Committee (ENDC) and its successor, the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD) . In a message to the American delegation to the ENDC, President Nixon proposed an agreement to ban the placing of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction on the seabed. In his opinion, this is the only way to " prevent an arms race before it has even started."
The Seabed Treaty was opened for signature on February 11, 1971 in Washington, DC , London and Moscow and entered into force on May 18, 1972 after it had been ratified by more than 25 states.
sources
- Wolfgang Graf Vitzthum (Ed.): Handbook of the law of the sea . Munich 2006. ISBN 3-406-54635-8 .
Web links
- Complete contract text (PDF file; 44 kB)
- Seabed Contract with the Association of American Scientists
- Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil Thereof , United States Department of the Interior