The Antarctic Treaty system has been based until now fundamentally on the activities of the Consultative Parties. This is not due to the fact that it is desired to make it an exclusive club, as some authors have described it, but because all the States which historically have developed an interest in this continent have acquired the status of Consultative Party, either because it was so recognized by the 1959 Treaty or because the special admission procedure was used to admit them as such.

The first programmes for the co-ordination of various types of international activity in Antarctica specified broad criteria for participation. The International Geophysical Year in 1957–1958 was a case in point. Among the many countries which participated in it, only twelve had a continuing interest in the Antarctic, shown by the maintenance of permanent bases in the continent and the carrying out of scientific research. It was from such interest and activities that the status of Consultative Party in the Antarctic Treaty originated and they have been the criterion generally adopted for the admission of new countries to this status. Whenever a country has qualified in terms of conducting the pertinent activities in the Antarctic it has not failed to acquire the status of Consultative Party by means of the procedures for admission.