SEABED AUTHORITY ENDS FIRST SERIES OF 1997 MEETINGS
Press Release
SEA/1548*
SEABED AUTHORITY ENDS FIRST SERIES OF 1997 MEETINGS
19970401 (Received from the International Seabed Authority.)KINGSTON, 27 March -- The Assembly and the Council of the International Seabed Authority today held their final meetings for the first half of the two-part 1997 session at Kingston.
At its meeting this morning, the Council heard the Chairman of the Legal and Technical Commission report that that expert body had completed a second reading of the draft regulations for seabed prospecting and exploration. It planned to present a final text in August for consideration by the Council.
The Council also held a further discussion, without reaching a conclusion, on a proposal by the "Group of 77" developing countries and China to allow non-members of the Commission to sit in its proceedings as observers.
Early this afternoon, the Assembly approved, on the Council's recommendation, the Agreement concerning the relationship between the Authority and the United Nations (ISBA/3/A/L.2-ISBA/3/C/L.2). Consideration of the draft protocol on privileges and immunities and the headquarters agreement with Jamaica, the two other substantive matters which had been on the Assembly's agenda, were deferred to the second part of the session, scheduled to take place from 18 to 29 August, also at Kingston.
Discussion in Council
At the meeting of the Council statements were presented by the President, the Chairman of the Legal and Technical Commission, and the Chairman of the Finance Committee.
The Chairman of the Legal and Technical Commission, Jean-Pierre Lenoble (France), summarized the work of the Commission during the past two weeks. A reference in his statement to the role of the Authority in establishing
* Press Release SEA/1548 issued on 31 March should have been issued as SEA/1549.
"guidelines and procedures for the protection and preservation of the environment" prompted comments later, in the Assembly, from the representative of New Zealand, who suggested that the Commission should be working on regulations rather than guidelines. That country was particularly concerned about the treatment of aspects related to protection of the marine environment in the revised draft mining code. The United Kingdom expressed the view that New Zealand was out of place in raising a matter being dealt with by the Council.
Chairman of the Finance Committee S. Rama Rao (India), reporting on closed meetings held this week, noted that the Committee had recommended the adoption of a two-year financial period for the Authority, starting with the period 2000-2001. In the meantime, the Committee recommended that an annual budget be submitted by the Secretary-General and adopted by the Assembly for each of the years 1998 and 1999.
The Finance Committee, during four meetings at this session, completed the first reading of the draft financial regulations and took up three other substantive issues: office accommodation for the secretariat of the Authority; the budget of the Authority; and the schedule of the Committee's future meetings.
On the matter of offices, the Chairman said the Committee could not proceed until it knew the location and cost of any proposed premises. The Secretary-General had been requested to provide such information for the August meeting.
Noting that the budget of the Authority for 1998 would be the first one financed by the assessed contributions of the members of the Authority, the President of the Council urged member States to pay up as soon as they were assessed by the Secretariat. "Otherwise, the Authority would cease to function", he observed.
There was extensive discussion on the matter of allowing observers to attend meetings of the Legal and Technical Commission, a matter introduced by the Group of 77 on Tuesday, 25 March.
Germany, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States said they would not support any move to open meetings of the Commission to observers. Their representatives argued that the deliberations of the Commission were highly technical and that body should be left alone to work.
Those members who spoke in support of the proposal by the Group of 77 agreed on the need for transparency in the deliberations of the Commission, since the current issue on its agenda -- the draft mining code -- was of such importance. That view was advanced by Argentina, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria and the Philippines.
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Several delegations raised the issue of rules of procedure of the Commission. Malaysia said the debate over observer status for non-members of the Commission was compounded by the lack of such rules. Other delegations argued that the Commission should give high priority to preparing its rules.
A report on credentials of Council members, read by President Lennox Ballah (Trinidad and Tobago), indicated that, of the 36 members, only Bangladesh had not been present at the session.
Assembly Debate on Organization of August Meetings
Differing views were voiced in the Assembly on how the August meetings should be organized. Some delegations favoured a work schedule allocating the first week entirely to meetings of the Legal and Technical Commission and the Finance Committee. That would allow those technical bodies to make significant progress on work such as the mining code and the budget, which the Council and the Assembly would then have to review. They argued that the Authority must begin to rationalize meetings in the interest of cost effectiveness, and pointed out that the March session had been marred by long waiting periods between Assembly and Council meetings.
The major objection to the split-schedule proposal was the argument that such a decision seemed to prejudge the issue of observer status for non-members in the meetings of the Legal and Technical Commission.
Following this discussion, Secretary-General Satya N. Nandan, announced that the format of meetings would remain the same and the first meeting of the Assembly would take place on the afternoon of Monday, 18 August.
In other matters, the Assembly approved the report of its Credentials Committee (ISBA/3/A/2). The Committee had accepted the credentials of 73 States and the European Community which have accredited representatives to the current session.
The Acting President of the Assembly, José Luís Vallarta (Mexico), presented a report summing up the work of the Assembly during the March meetings (ISBA/3/A/L.4).
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