The Antarctic Treaty Secretariat was established in Buenos Aires, Argentina in September 2004 by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM). Jan Huber (Netherlands) served as the first Executive Secretary for five years until August 31, 2009. He was succeeded on September 1, 2009 by Manfred Reinke (Germany), appointed for a four-year term.
The tasks of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat can be divided into the following areas:
- Supporting the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and the meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP).
- Facilitating the exchange of information between the Parties required in the Treaty and the Environment Protocol.
- Collecting, storing, arranging and publishing the documents of the ATCM.
- Providing and disseminating public information about the Antarctic Treaty system and Antarctic activities.
Read more about this topic: Antarctic Treaty System
Famous quotes containing the word treaty:
“There is between sleep and us something like a pact, a treaty with no secret clauses, and according to this convention it is agreed that, far from being a dangerous, bewitching force, sleep will become domesticated and serve as an instrument of our power to act. We surrender to sleep, but in the way that the master entrusts himself to the slave who serves him.”
—Maurice Blanchot (b. 1907)