Commission on Limits of Continental Shelf to Hold Fifty‑Eighth Session at Headquarters, 5 July — 22 August

NEW YORK, 3 July (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) — The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will hold its fifty-eighth session from 5 July to 22 August 2023.  The session will be held in-person at United Nations Headquarters.  During the session, plenary meetings will be held on 5 July and from 8 to 11 August.  The remainder of the session will be devoted to the technical examination of submissions by subcommissions in the Division premises, including geographic information systems laboratories and other technical facilities.

This will be the first session of the Commission following the election of its members at the thirty-second Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in June 2022.  The following 19 members are about to start to serve their term of office of five years ending on 15 June 2028:  Adnan Rashid Nasser Al-Azri (Oman), Lawrence Asangongo Apaalse (Ghana), Harald Brekke (Norway), Efren Perez Carandang (Philippines), Aldino Manuel dos Santos de Campos (Portugal), Antonio Fernando Garcez Faria (Brazil), Ivan F. Glumov (Russian Federation), Helena Inniss (Trinidad and Tobago), Miloud Loukili (Morocco), Estevão Stefane Mahanjane (Mozambique), Domingos de Carvalho Viana Moreira (Angola), David Cole Mosher (Canada), Simon Njuguna (Kenya), Tolojanahary Randriamiarantsoa (Madagascar), Rajan Sivaramakrishnan (India), Yong Tang (China), Ariel Hernán Troisi (Argentina), Toshitsugu Yamazaki (Japan) and Gonzalo Alejandro Yáñez Carrizo (Chile).  Another elected member, Mateusz Damrat (Poland), resigned due to health reasons on 2 June 2023.  Subsequently, the thirty-third Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, held from 12 to 16 June 2023, determined that there will be a need, at a future date, to hold a by-election to fill both this vacancy, as well as another long-term one.  Both vacant seats are allocated to the Group of Eastern European States by virtue of an arrangement agreed upon by States Parties in 2009.

As the first order of business, the Commission will need to elect the officers of the Commission, namely its Chair and Vice-Chairs.  It will also need to appoint the members of the subcommissions and other subsidiary bodies.

As to the plan of work of the fifty-eighth session, it is expected that five subcommissions will continue to consider submissions made by:  Brazil in respect of the Brazilian Equatorial Margin (partial revised submission); Mauritius in respect of the region of Rodrigues Island (partial submission); Palau in respect of the North Area (partial amended submission); Portugal; and Spain in respect of the area of Galicia (partial submission).

Moreover, subcommissions for the consideration of submissions made by Cook Islands concerning the Manihiki Plateau (revised submission), Trinidad and Tobago and Namibia, established at the last session, are expected to commence their examination of the respective submissions.  One additional subcommission may be established during the upcoming session.

Pending before the plenary of the Commission is the unfinished consideration of the recommendations prepared by the subcommission established to consider the submission made by Nigeria. The draft of these recommendation was transmitted to the Commission during the fifty-seventh session.

Finally, on 5 July, the Russian Federation will present its submission in respect of the south-eastern part of the Eurasian Basin in the Arctic Ocean (partial revised submission) to the Commission.  Additional coastal States that have not yet presented their submissions to the Commission are expected to be invited by the Commission to do so during the resumed plenary part of the session in August.

Background

Established pursuant to article 2, annex II to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Commission makes recommendations to coastal States on matters related to the establishment of the outer limits of their continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured, based on information submitted to it by coastal States.  These recommendations are based on the scientific and technical data and other material provided by States in relation to the implementation of article 76 of the Convention.  The recommendations do not prejudice matters relating to the delimitation of boundaries between States with opposite or adjacent coasts or prejudice the position of States that are parties to a land or maritime dispute, or application of other parts of the Convention or any other treaties.  The limits of the continental shelf established by a coastal State on the basis of these recommendations shall be final and binding.  In the case of disagreement by the coastal State with the recommendations of the Commission, the coastal State shall, within a reasonable time, make a revised or new submission to the Commission.

Under rule 23 of its rules of procedure (Public and private meetings), the meetings of the Commission, its subcommissions and subsidiary bodies are held in private, unless the Commission decides otherwise.

As required under the rules of procedure of the Commission, the executive summaries of all the submissions, including all charts and coordinates, have been made public by the Secretary‑General through continental shelf notifications circulated to Member States of the United Nations, as well as States Parties to the Convention.  The executive summaries are available on the Division’s website at:  http://www.un.org/depts/los/clcs_new/clcs_home.htm.  The summaries of recommendations adopted by the Commission are also available on the above-referenced website.

The Commission is a body of 21 experts in the field of geology, geophysics or hydrography.  They serve in their personal capacities.  Members of the Commission are elected for a term of five years by the Meeting of States Parties to the Convention from among their nationals having due regard to the need to ensure equitable geographical representation.  Not fewer than three members shall be elected from each geographical region.  Currently, two seats on the Commission are vacant due to the lack of nominations from the Eastern European Group of States and the resignation of a member-elect.

The Convention provides that the State party which submitted the nomination of a member of the Commission shall defray the expenses of that member while in performance of Commission duties.  A voluntary trust fund for the purpose of defraying the cost of participation of the members of the Commission from developing countries has been established.  It has facilitated the participation of several members of the Commission from developing countries in the sessions of the Commission.

The convening by the Secretary-General of the United Nations of the sessions of the Commission, with full conference services, including documentation, for the plenary parts of these sessions, is subject to approval by the General Assembly of the United Nations.  The Assembly does so in its annual resolutions on oceans and the law of the sea, which also address other matters relevant to the work of the Commission and the conditions of service of its members.

For additional information on the work of the Commission, see the website of the Division at:  http://www.un.org/depts/los/index.htm.  In particular, the most recent Statements by the Chair on the progress in the work of the Commission are available at:  http://www.un.org/depts/los/clcs_new/commission_documents.