Antarctic Treaty System in the context of "60th parallel south"

The United Nations comprise 193 sovereign states and the world's largest intergovernmental organization. All members have equal representation in the United Nations General Assembly.

The Charter of the United Nations defines the rules for admission of member states. Membership is open to all states which accept certain terms of the charter and are able to carry them out. New members must be recommended by the United Nations Security Council. In addition to the member states, the UN also invites non-member states to be observer states at the UN General Assembly. A member state that has persistently violated the principles of the United Nations Charter can be expelled from the United Nations.

The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of 3,687 km (1,424 sq mi). They lie about 120 kilometres (65 nautical miles) north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between 430 and 900 km (230 and 485 nmi) southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories. According to British government language on the topic, "the whole of Antarctica is protected in the interests of peace and science."

The islands have been claimed by three countries, beginning with the United Kingdom since 1908 (since 1962 as part of the equally unrecognized British Antarctic Territory). The islands are also claimed by the governments of Chile (since 1940, as part of the Antártica Chilena province), and by Argentina (since 1943, as part of Argentine Antarctica, Tierra del Fuego Province).

Bouvet Island (/ˈbuːveɪ/ BOO-vay; Norwegian: Bouvetøya [bʉˈvèːœʏɑ]) is an uninhabited subantarctic volcanic island and dependency of Norway. A protected nature reserve situated in the South Atlantic Ocean at the southern end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, it is the world's most remote island. Located north of the Antarctic Circle, Bouvet Island is not part of the southern region covered by the Antarctic Treaty System.

The island lies 1,700 km (1,100 mi; 920 nmi) north of the Princess Astrid Coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, 1,870 km (1,160 mi; 1,010 nmi) east of the South Sandwich Islands, 1,845 km (1,146 mi; 996 nmi) south of Gough Island, and 2,520 km (1,570 mi; 1,360 nmi) south-southwest of the coast of South Africa. It has an area of 49 km (19 sq mi), 93 percent of which is covered by a glacier. The centre of the island is the ice-filled crater of an inactive volcano. Some skerries and one smaller island, Larsøya, lie along its coast. Nyrøysa, created by a rockslide in the late 1950s, is the only easy place to land and is the location of a weather station.

Norway has three dependent territories (Norwegian: biland), all uninhabited and located in the Southern Hemisphere. Bouvet Island (Bouvetøya) is a sub-Antarctic island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Queen Maud Land is the sector of Antarctica between the 20th meridian west and the 45th meridian east. Peter I Island is a volcanic island located 450 kilometres (280 mi) off the coast of Ellsworth Land of continental Antarctica. Despite being unincorporated areas, neither Svalbard nor Jan Mayen is formally considered a dependency. While the Svalbard Treaty regulates some aspects of that Arctic territory, it acknowledges that the islands are part of Norway. Similarly, Jan Mayen is recognized as an integral part of Norway.

Both Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land are south of 60°S and are thus part of the Antarctic Treaty System. While the treaty does not affect these claims, the only states that recognize Norwegian sovereignty also have Antarctic claims. Administration of the dependencies is handled by the Polar Affairs Department of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security in Oslo. Norwegian criminal law, private law and procedural law apply to the dependencies, as do other laws that explicitly state they are valid on the dependencies.

Peter I Island (Norwegian: Peter I Øy) is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Bellingshausen Sea, 450 kilometres (240 nmi) from continental Antarctica. It is claimed as a dependency of Norway and, along with Bouvet Island and Queen Maud Land, composes one of the three Norwegian dependent territories in the Antarctic and Subantarctic. The island measures approximately 11 by 19 kilometres (7 by 12 mi), with an area of 156 km (60 sq mi); its highest point is the ultra-prominent, 1,640-metre-tall (5,380 ft) Lars Christensen Peak. Nearly all the island is covered by a glacier, and it is surrounded most of the year by pack ice, making it inaccessible during these times. There is little vertebrate animal life on the island, apart from some seabirds and seals.

The island was first sighted by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen on 21 January 1821 and was named after Peter I of Russia. Not until 2 February 1929 did anyone set foot on the island, when Nils Larsen and Ola Olstad's Second Norvegia Expedition, financed by Lars Christensen, was successful. They claimed it for Norway, which annexed it in 1931 and made it a dependency in 1933. The next landing occurred in 1948, and the island has been subject to some scientific research and a limited amount of tourism. The island became subject to the Antarctic Treaty in 1961. Since 1987, there has been an automated meteorological station on the island. Three amateur radio DX-peditions have visited the island, and there are sporadic landings by tourists.

Queen Maud Land (Norwegian: Dronning Maud Land) is a roughly 2.7-million-square-kilometre (1.0-million-square-mile) region of Antarctica claimed by Norway as a dependent territory. It borders the claimed British Antarctic Territory 20° west, specifically the Caird Coast, Coats Land on the West, and the Australian Antarctic Territory 45° east, specifically Enderby Land on the East. In addition, a small unclaimed area from 1939 was annexed in June 2015. Positioned in East Antarctica, it makes out about one-fifth of the continent, and is named after the Norwegian Queen Maud (1869–1938).

In 1930, the Norwegian Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen was the first person known to have set foot in the territory. On 14 January 1939, the territory was claimed by Norway. On 23 June 1961, Queen Maud Land became part of the Antarctic Treaty System, making it a demilitarised zone. It is one of two Antarctic claims made by Norway, the other being Peter I Island. They are administered by the Polar Affairs Department of the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security in Oslo.

Overseas France (French: France d'outre-mer, also France ultramarine) consists of 13 French territories outside Europe, mostly the remnants of the French colonial empire that remained a part of the French state under various statuses after decolonisation.

"Overseas France" is a collective name; while used in everyday life in France, it is not an administrative designation in its own right. Instead, the five overseas regions have exactly the same administrative status as the thirteen metropolitan regions; the five overseas collectivities are semi-autonomous; and New Caledonia is an autonomous territory. Overseas France includes island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, French Guiana on the South American continent, and several peri-Antarctic islands as well as a claim in Antarctica. Excluding the district of Adélie Land, where French sovereignty is effective de jure by French law, but where the French exclusive claim on this part of Antarctica is frozen by the Antarctic Treaty (signed in 1959), overseas France covers a land area of 120,396 km (46,485 sq mi) and accounts for 18.0% of the French Republic's land territory. Its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 9,825,538 km (3,793,661 sq mi) accounts for 96.7% of the EEZ of the French Republic.

The Antarctic (/ænˈtɑːr(k)tɪk/, US also /æntˈɑːr(k)tɪk/; commonly /ænˈɑːrtɪk/) is the polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole.

The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau, and other island territories located on the Antarctic Plate or south of the Antarctic Convergence. The Antarctic region includes the ice shelves, waters, and all the island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence, a zone approximately 32 to 48 km (20 to 30 mi) wide and varying in latitude seasonally. The region covers some 20 percent of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5 percent (14 million km) is the surface area of the Antarctica continent itself. All of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude are administered under the Antarctic Treaty System.