ASSEMBLY OF SEABED AUTHORITY DEFERS CONSIDERATION OF DRAFT PROTOCOL ON PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES
Press Release
SEA/1544
ASSEMBLY OF SEABED AUTHORITY DEFERS CONSIDERATION OF DRAFT PROTOCOL ON PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES
19970324 (Received from the International Seabed Authority.)KINGSTON, 24 March -- The Assembly of the International Seabed Authority, meeting at Kingston this morning, agreed to defer to the August part of the current session discussions on a draft protocol on the legal privileges and immunities of the Authority. The decision followed extensive consultations held since Monday, 17 March.
Outlining the reasons for the deferment, the President of the Assembly, S. Amos Wako (Kenya), said that there were differing views on the need for a protocol, arising from what some delegates saw as the duplication in that document of some provisions already addressed in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. A few States, the President reported, saw no need for a protocol. Others wished to reserve judgement until they had had time to examine all the pertinent documents -- a draft reviewed since last August by a working group, a later draft by the secretariat and the proposed headquarters agreement between the Authority and the Government of Jamaica.
The President noted that many countries felt that a protocol was necessary, while others had asked for an explanatory note by the secretariat setting out the need for a protocol in relation to the headquarters agreement. That would facilitate consideration of the document by the governments of member countries before the Authority resumed its 1997 session in August. There was consensus that the document drafted by the secretariat should be distributed as an official document by next Wednesday, 26 March.
It was agreed that the secretariat should re-open discussions with the United Nations Secretariat to resolve temporarily the matter of laissez-passer -- travel documents used by officials of the Authority.
The first draft of the protocol was submitted in 1992 by the Preparatory Commission for the International Seabed Authority and for the Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, and a working group was established at the August 1996 session to review the document.
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24 March 1997
In other matters, the Assembly elected its four Vice-Presidents -- Kuwait, Malta, Mexico and Poland -- which were nominated by their regional groups.
The President informed the meeting that the recommendations of the Council on the relationship agreement between the Authority and the United Nations would be considered at the next meeting of the Assembly, on Wednesday.
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