COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF CONCLUDES FIRST SESSION

25 June 1997

Press Release
SEA/1554

COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF CONCLUDES FIRST SESSION

19970625 Considers Draft Rules of Procedure and Decides on Future Work

The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf concluded its first session on 20 June, having considered its draft rules of procedure and addressing a number of other issues related to its work. The Commission is the body mandated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to make recommendations to coastal States who claim that their continental shelf extends beyond 200 nautical miles from their coasts. The Convention entered into force on 16 November 1994.

The continental shelf is the under-sea extension of a coastal State's land territory. It is defined in the Convention as the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond a coastal State's territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured, where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance.

The Commission was elected by the States parties at their Seventh Meeting, held at Headquarters from 10 to 14 March. The Commission is the last of the three bodies created by the Convention to be established. The others are the International Seabed Authority and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

At this first session, the Commission elected Yuri Borisovitch Kazmin (Russian Federation) as its Chairman. It also elected its Vice-Chairmen and a Rapporteur. The Commission devoted nearly the whole session to the consideration of its draft rules of procedure (document CLCS/WP.1).

The Commission also established a subsidiary body to deal with the question of advice to coastal States. It decided to hold its next session at Headquarters from 2 to 12 September, and to hold two further meetings in 1998, each for a period of two weeks.

In a ceremony held on Thursday, 19 June, and conducted by the Legal Counsel of the United Nations Hans Corell, each member of the Commission made

a solemn declaration which would govern the performance of their functions in the Commission.

Finally, the Commission proposed that the Meeting of States Parties to the Convention establish a fund to cover the travel and accommodation expenses of members of the Commission from developing countries. Commission members serve in their personal capacity and do not receive any remuneration from the United Nations.

Rules of Procedure The Commission had before it draft rules of procedure prepared by the Secretariat (document CLCS/WP.1), dealing with all aspects of its work, some routine in nature -- such as election of officers, conduct of business, and establishment of subsidiary bodies -- and others dealing with more substantive matters to be addressed by the Commission, particularly the submission by a coastal State and issues related to the delimitation of boundaries between States with opposite or adjacent coasts.

In his statement on the work of the first session of the Commission (document CLCS/1), the Chairman noted that those rules of procedure which were considered and adopted without amendment would not be subject to a second reading. He singled out for special mention, rules dealing with the question of confidentiality (draft rules 50 to 53), and the delimitation of boundaries between States with opposite or adjacent coasts (rule 44).

The draft rules relating to the issue of confidentiality, which were not included in the original draft rules of procedure, were adopted with amendments proposed by members and were then incorporated into the rules of procedure. In addition, the Commission decided that a separate declaration on this subject will be drafted to be signed by each member.

In essence, the draft rules on confidentiality are designed to ensure that members of the Commission do not disclose, even after they cease to be members, any confidential information coming to their knowledge by reason of their duties in the Commission.

On a related matter -- protection from possible financial liability of members of the Commission resulting from potential breaches of the rules of confidentiality -- the Chairman noted that views were expressed that some provisions would have to be made giving immunity from legal process to the members of the Commission in the performance of their functions. That could be achieved either through a protocol on privileges and immunities to be adopted by the Meeting of States Parties or by an undertaking to be signed by the coastal States when seeking technical and scientific advice from the Commission. The Commission decided to consider the matter further at its next session.

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The Commission held detailed discussions on rule 44 dealing with the question of delimitation of boundaries between States with opposite or adjacent coasts. The Commission decided to defer the adoption of this rule until such time when a Meeting of States Parties has had an opportunity to review the proposed rules formulated by the Commission regarding that issue.

The draft rule concerning delimitation is complex and detailed. In essence, as drafted by the Commission, it would ensure that a State making a submission inform the Commission that the area claimed is subject to a dispute, that the other parties to the dispute are informed of the submission, and that the State making the submission assure and demonstrate to the Commission that any recommendation on the submission would not prejudice matters relating to delimitation of boundaries between States with opposite or adjacent coasts.

Advice to Coastal States

Among the functions assigned to the Commission is the provision of scientific and technical advice, if requested by the coastal State concerned during the preparation of a submission concerning the outer limit of its continental shelf. To that end, the Commission decided to establish a subsidiary body of five members which will deal with the question of advice to coastal States. That subsidiary body will be chaired by Karl H.F. Hinz, with Aly Ibrahim Beltagy, Kazuchika Hamuro, Noel Newton St. Claver Francis and Mladen Jura'i' as members.

Future Work

The Chairman noted that since the Commission had almost completed the first round of its consideration of the rules of procedure, it decided to proceed with the second reading of the rules, as well as the consideration of the remaining items on the agenda at its next session, namely the organization of work, modus operandi of the Commission, guidelines for the provision of scientific and technical advice to coastal States and other matters.

Commission Members

The 21 Members of the Commission are: Alexandre Tagore Medeiros de Albuquerque (Brazil); Osvaldo Pedro Astiz (Argentina); Lawrence Folajimi Awosika (Nigeria); Aly I. Beltagy (Egypt); Samuel Sona Betah (Cameroon); Harald Brekke (Norway); Galo Carrera Hurtado (Mexico); Andre Chan Chim Yuk (Mauritius); Peter F. Croker (Ireland); Noel Newton Francis (Jamaica); Kazuchika Hamuro (Japan); Karl H. F. Hinz (Germany); A. Bakar Jaafar (Malaysia); Mladen Juracic (Croatia); Yuri Borisovitch Kazmin (Russian Federation); Iain C. Lamont (New Zealand); Lu Wenzheng (China); Chisengu Leo M'Dala (Zambia); Yong-Ahn Park (Republic of Korea); Daniel Rio (France); and K. R. Srinivasan (India). * *** *