Convention for the Protection of Submarine Telegraph Cables
Signed | 14 March 1884 (1884-03-14)[1] |
---|---|
Location | Paris, France[1] |
Effective | 1 May 1888[1] |
Condition | Exchange of ratifications |
Signatories | 27 |
Parties | 36 (as of 2013)[2] |
Ratifiers | 47 |
Depositary | Government of the French Republic[3] |
Full text | |
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The Convention for the Protection of Submarine Telegraph Cables is a multilateral treaty that was signed in 1884 in order to protect submarine communications cables that had begun to be laid in the 19th century.
Content
The convention made it a punishable offence to damage submarine communications cables. In addition, all ships were to be regulated to staying a distance of 1 nautical mile (1.9 km) away from cable laying ships when in operation. Any ship that accidentally hooked a cable and sacrificed its fishing nets to avoid breaking it would be compensated for the lost equipment.[3]
State parties
The convention has been signed, ratified, and acceded to by the following parties. A number of dependent territories ratified the convention or had the convention extended to them.
For states that were not original signatories, the date they accepted the convention is indicated.
State | Signature | Ratification | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | – | 1976 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | – | 1901 | Upon federation, Australia accepted the ratifications of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia to be applicable to the Commonwealth of Australia. |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | Austria and Hungary both submitted separate notifications of succession. |
![]() | – | 1921 | Notification of succession of ratification by Austria-Hungary. |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | – | 1888 | Extension by the United Kingdom to cover Canada. |
![]() | – | 1888 | This ratification no longer has any force for any state; South Africa has not declared its succession to the ratification. |
![]() | 1884 | – | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | – | 1925 | This ratification no longer has any force for any state; neither the Czech Republic nor Slovakia have declared their succession to the ratification. |
![]() | – | 1926 | This ratification no longer has any force for any state. |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | – | 1971 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1888 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | – | 1922 | Notification of succession of the ratification by Austria-Hungary. |
![]() | 1884 | – | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | – | 1884 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | – | 1968 | |
![]() | – | 1888 | This ratification no longer has any force for any state; South Africa has not declared its succession to the ratification. |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | Also applied to the colonies of the Dutch East Indies, Territory of Curaçao and Suriname (1892). Presently still applies to the territories making up the Territory of Curaçao: Aruba (1986), Curaçao (2010), Sint Maarten (2010), Caribbean Netherlands (2010) |
![]() | – | 1888 | Extension by the United Kingdom to cover Newfoundland; this ratification is now subsumed within Canada's. |
![]() | – | 1888 | This ratification is now subsumed within the convention's application to Australia. |
![]() | – | 1888 | Extension by the United Kingdom to cover New Zealand. |
![]() | – | 1905 | Convention previously applied to Norway via the ratification of Sweden-Norway. |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | This ratification now applied to Turkey. |
![]() | – | 1934 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | – | 1886 | This ratification is now subsumed within the convention's application to Australia. |
![]() | 1884 | 1886 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | This ratification was previously accepted as applicable to it by Yugoslavia and by Serbia and Montenegro. |
![]() | – | 1885 | This ratification is now subsumed within the convention's application to Australia. |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | This ratification now applies to Sweden. |
![]() | – | 1888 | This ratification is now subsumed within the convention's application to Australia. |
![]() | – | 1889 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | 1884 | 1885 | |
![]() | – | 1885 | This ratification is now subsumed within the convention's application to Australia. |
![]() | – | 1888 | This ratification is now subsumed within the Convention's application to Australia. |
Notes
- ^ a b c "International Convention on the Protection of Submarine Cables, with additional Article". Government of the Netherlands. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
- ^ "Submarine Cables". Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
- ^ a b "Convention for the Protection of Submarine Telegraph Cables (Paris, 14 March 1884)" (PDF). Commonwealth of Australia. 1999. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2010.