AGENDA ITEM ON GRANTING OF OBSERVER STATUS FOR INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY RECOMMENDED BY GENERAL COMMITTEE

Press Release
GA/9120

AGENDA ITEM ON GRANTING OF OBSERVER STATUS FOR INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY RECOMMENDED BY GENERAL COMMITTEE

The General Committee this morning recommended that the General Assembly include in its current agenda an item on the granting of observer status for the International Seabed Authority.

The representative of Jamaica, who introduced the item, said that the International Seabed Authority was an autonomous intergovernmental organization established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and therefore the granting of observer status would be consistent with Assembly decisions. The Authority had been vested with a task of vital importance to all States. It had a legal personality and its seat was in Jamaica. Furthermore, it was entrusted with the organization and control of activities in the international seabed area, particularly administering the resources of the area.

She said that the Authority was one the most widely subscribed intergovernmental organizations, with some 106 States members. The Authority's presence in the General Assembly could only enrich the dialogue and the understanding of the law of the sea and ocean affairs matters.

The request for including the item was contained in a letter addressed to the Secretary-General from representatives of 18 Member States (document A/51/231) as follows: Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Samoa, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom.

An explanatory memorandum annexed to the letter states in part that at its second session, held at Kingston from 5 to 16 August, the Assembly of the Authority, recognizing that the Authority, owing to its responsibilities under the Convention, had an interest in the law of the sea and ocean affairs and other related matters considered by the Assembly, decided that it should seek to obtain observer status at the United Nations to enable it to participate in the deliberations of the Assembly and requested the Secretary-General of the Authority to take the necessary measures to seek such observer status.

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