| Svalbard Treaty | |
| Long Name: | Treaty recognising the sovereignty of Norway over the Archipelago of Spitsbergen, including Bear Island Traité reconnaissant la souveraineté de la Norvège sur l'archipel du Spitsberg, y compris l'île aux Ours |
| Date Signed: | 9 February 1920 |
| Location Signed: | Paris, France |
| Date Effective: | 14 August 1925 |
| Condition Effective: | Ratification by all the signatory powers |
| Parties: | 48 – see list |
| Depositor: | Government of the French Republic |
| Languages: | French and English |
| Wikisource: | Spitsbergen Treaty |
The Svalbard Treaty (originally the Spitsbergen Treaty) recognises the sovereignty of Norway over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, at the time called Spitsbergen. The exercise of sovereignty is, however, subject to certain stipulations, and not all Norwegian law applies. The treaty restricts military uses of the archipelago, but it is not demilitarized.[1] The signatories were given equal rights to engage in commercial activities (mainly coal mining) on the islands., Norway and Russia make use of this right.
Uniquely, the archipelago is an entirely visa-free zone under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty.[2]
The treaty was signed on 9 February 1920 and submitted for registration in the League of Nations Treaty Series on 21 October 1920.[3] There were 14 original High Contracting Parties: Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands,[4] Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom (including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and India), and the United States.[5] Of the original signatories, Japan was the last to ratify the treaty on 2 April 1925, and the treaty came into force on 14 August 1925.[6]
Many additional nations acceded to the treaty after it was ratified by the original signatories, including several before it came into force., there are 48 parties to the treaty.[7] [8] [9]
The original treaty is titled the Treaty recognising the sovereignty of Norway over the Archipelago of Spitsbergen. It refers to the entire archipelago as Spitsbergen, which had been the only name in common usage since 1596 (with minor variations in spelling). In 1925, five years after the conclusion of the treaty, the Norwegian authorities proceeded to officially rename the islands "Svalbard". This new name was a modern adaptation of the ancient toponym Norse, Old: Svalbarði, attested in the Norse sagas as early as 1194. The exonym Spitsbergen subsequently came to be applied to the main island in the archipelago.[10] [11] Accordingly, in modern historiography the Treaty of Spitsbergen is commonly referred to anachronistically as the Svalbard Treaty to reflect the name change.
The archipelago was discovered by the Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz in 1596.[12] It was named Spitsbergen, meaning 'sharp-peaked mountains' (literally 'spits-berg'). It was uninhabited.[13] The islands were renamed in the 1920s by Norway as Svalbard.[14]
Spitsbergen/Svalbard began as a territory free of a nation, with people from different countries participating in industries including fishing, whaling, mining, research and later, tourism. Not belonging to any nation left Svalbard largely free of regulations or laws, though there were conflicts over the area due to whaling rights and sovereignty disputes between England, the Netherlands and Denmark–Norway in the first half of the 17th century.[15] By the 20th century mineral deposits were found on the main island and continual conflicts between miners and owners created the need for a government.[16]
The Spitsbergen Treaty was signed in Paris on 9 February 1920, during the Versailles negotiations after World War I. In this treaty, international diplomacy recognized Norwegian sovereignty (the Norwegian administration went in effect by 1925) and other principles relating to Svalbard. This includes:
There has been a long-running dispute, primarily between Norway and Russia (and before it, the Soviet Union) over fishing rights in the region.[19] [20] In 1977, Norway established a regulated fishery in a 200nmi zone around Svalbard (though it did not close the zone to foreign access). Norway argues that the treaty's provisions of equal economic access apply only to the islands and their territorial waters (four nautical miles at the time) 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. The Soviet Union/Russia disputed and continues to dispute this position and consider the Spitsbergen Treaty to apply to the entire zone. Talks were held in 1978 in Moscow but did not resolve the issue. Finland and Canada support Norway's position, while most of the other treaty signatories have expressed no official position. The relevant parts of the treaty are as follows:
Ships and nationals of all the High Contracting Parties shall enjoy equally the rights of fishing and hunting in the territories specified in Article 1 and in their territorial waters. (from Article 2)
They shall be admitted under the same conditions of equality to the exercise and practice of all maritime, industrial, mining or commercial enterprises both on land and in the territorial waters, and no monopoly shall be established on any account or for any enterprise whatever. (from Article 3)
"Mainly the dispute is about whether the Svalbard Treaty also is in effect outside the 12 nautical mile territorial sea," according to Norway's largest newspaper, Aftenposten. If the treaty comes into effect outside the zone, then Norway will not be able to claim the full 78% of profits of oil- and gas harvesting, said Aftenposten in 2011.[21]
A list of parties is shown below; the dates below reflect when a nation deposited its instrument of ratification or accession.[7] [8] [9] Some parties are successor states to the countries that joined the treaty, as noted below.
| Country | Date of ratification | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extension by the United Kingdom. | |||
| Extension by the United Kingdom. | |||
| Acceded as the Republic of China. Both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China claim to be the successor or continuing state, but as of 2024 all other parties to the treaty recognize only the People's Republic of China. | |||
| Czechoslovakia acceded to the treaty on . On, the Czech Republic stated that it considered itself bound to the treaty since its independence on, as a successor state. | |||
| Extension to the entire Danish Realm. | |||
| Acceded as the Weimar Republic. On, East Germany stated that it also reapplied the treaty since . East Germany reunited with West Germany on 3 October 1990. | |||
| Extension by the United Kingdom. | |||
| The Irish Free State left the United Kingdom after the latter signed the treaty but before it was ratified. On, Ireland stated that it also applied the treaty since its ratification by the United Kingdom. | |||
| Extension to the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands. | |||
| Extension by the United Kingdom. | |||
| Acceded as the Soviet Union. On, Russia declared that it continued to apply the treaties concluded by the Soviet Union. | |||
| Acceded as the Kingdom of Hejaz. | |||
| Yugoslavia acceded to the treaty on . On, Serbia declared to continue the application of the treaty. | |||
| Czechoslovakia acceded to the treaty on . On, Slovakia stated that it considered itself bound to the treaty since its independence on, as a successor state. | |||
| Extension by the United Kingdom. | |||
| Extension to Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa. Ireland also applied the treaty since its ratification by the United Kingdom. | |||