SEABED AUTHORITY OPENS RESUMED THIRD SESSION IN KINGSTON

Press Release
SEA/1556

SEABED AUTHORITY OPENS RESUMED THIRD SESSION IN KINGSTON

(Received from the International Seabed Authority.)

KINGSTON, 18 August -- International Seabed Authority resumed its third session at Kingston this afternoon with a decision to refer to its Legal and Technical Commission a proposal by the "Group of 77" developing countries and China that it consider including non-members of the Commission as observers in the meetings of that body.

The Commission is to take this matter up as its first order of business on Wednesday morning, 19 August, after which the Council will consider its recommendations later in the day.

Both of the Authority's main intergovernmental bodies, the 135-member Assembly and the 36-member Council, met successively this afternoon to lay the groundwork for the current meetings, which will continue through 29 August. Acting in the absence of Assembly President S. Amos Wako of Kenya, Jose Luis Vallarta (Mexico) briefly informed the meeting of the agenda items to be taken up by the Assembly over the next two weeks.

Among the matters slated for discussion is the agreement between the Authority and the Government of Jamaica concerning the Authority's headquarters in Jamaica. Mr. Vallarta said that issue would have to wait until the Council referred the matter to the Assembly. Some items, such as the financial regulations of the Authority, the proposed 1998 budget and the assessment of contributions, were subject to the recommendations of the Finance Committee.

The Assembly decided that meetings would be conducted in accordance with a schedule allocating most of the first week to the work of the Legal and Technical Commission and the Finance Committee, whose recommendations would be reviewed by the Council and the Assembly during the second week. The Commission is to finalize its draft of a deep seabed mining code.

- 2 - Press Release SEA/1556 19 August 1997

The Secretary-General of the Authority, Satya N. Nandan, informed the Council that some countries and non-governmental organizations had sent proposals on the substance of the mining code, which would be made available to the Commission. The issue of observer status for non-members in the Legal and Technical Commission was raised today by Brazil on behalf of the "Group of 77" -- first in the Assembly and then in the Council. The proposal was originally made to the Council last March, when a decision was deferred. The Commission is a 22-member body of experts elected by the Council and chaired by Jean-Pierre Lenoble (France). The proposal would have the Commission allow what Brazil referred to as "silent observers" to attend discussions on the draft mining code, in order that members of the Council could be better informed when the Commission reported on the results of its work. Brazil argued that the Council, as the body that will approve the mining code, should be able to monitor the work of the Commission. "We certainly don't want to be submitting documents to the Legal and Technical Commission, since this is not the nature of being observers", Brazil stated. Argentina, Chile, Jamaica and Kenya, supporting the proposal for observers, pointed to the importance that their countries attached to the discussions on the mining code. The representative of Jamaica called on the Council to recommend to the Commission that it consider some provisional arrangement to allow observers along the terms suggested by Brazil as a matter of urgency since the first meeting of the Commission was scheduled for 19 August. The United Kingdom, Germany and the Russian Federation, outlining the case for the Commission to continue to meet in private with only its members attending, emphasized the technical and sometimes confidential nature of its deliberations, indicating that public meetings could inhibit frank and open discussions. The representative of Germany urged members of the Council to be careful not to appear to be in conflict with the Commission. He also suggested that members of the Commission be given the opportunity to re-examine the proposal by the "Group of 77" but that the Council should accept any decision made by the Commission, as the matter was procedural rather than substantive. The representative of the Russian Federation said the Council had already discussed and concluded the issue. Furthermore, the members of the Commission had been elected by the Council and were qualified to represent all groups and interests in a balanced way. The Council then accepted a suggestion by its President, Lennox Ballah (Trinidad and Tobago), that the proposal to admit observers to the meetings of the Commission be submitted to that body for reconsideration on the morning of 19 August, after which the Council would meet to discuss the Commission's recommendations. The President said the Commission had already decided in March that its meetings would be closed.

* *** *