COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS, 2 - 12 SEPTEMBER
Press Release
SEA/1559
COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS, 2 - 12 SEPTEMBER
19970827 The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will continue to review its draft rules of procedure, as well as discuss its modus operandi, when it holds its second session at Headquarters, from 2 to 12 September.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 jurisdiction over their continental shelf 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.
A coastal State exercises jurisdiction over the natural resources of its continental shelf. The resources of the seabed and subsoil beyond the outer limits of the continental margin are considered to be part of the common heritage of mankind and are not subject to any State's jurisdiction.
At its first session, held from 16 to 20 June this year, the Commission elected its officers, established a subsidiary organ to deal with the question of advice to coastal States, and began consideration of its rules of procedure.
Rules of Procedure
The Commission will have before it a set of revised draft rules of procedure (document CLCS/WP.1), dealing with all aspects of its work. Some, such as election of officers, conduct of business and establishment of subsidiary bodies, are routine in nature. Others deal with more substantive matters, including submissions by a coastal State and the delimitation of boundaries between States having opposite or adjacent coasts.
In his statement on the work of the Commission's first session (document CLCS/1), its Chairman noted that those rules of procedure which were considered and adopted without amendment would not be subject to a second
reading. Those which were amended would have to go through a second reading before they could be adopted.
He singled out for special mention the new draft rules dealing with the question of confidentiality (draft rules 50 to 53). Among other things, those rules, as amended, impose a duty on members of the Commission not to disclose any confidential information coming to their knowledge by reason of their duties in relation to the Commission, even after they cease to be members. Any member who discloses confidential information in breach of that duty would cease to exercise any function in relation to the receipt, custody or examination of confidential information and would be disqualified from being re-elected or reappointed to exercise such functions.
On a related matter -- protection of members of the Commission from possible financial liability resulting from potential breaches of the rules of confidentiality -- the Chairman said it had been stated that some provision must be made giving immunity from legal process to the members of the Commission in the performance of their functions. It was suggested that this could be achieved either through an appropriate decision of the Meeting of States Parties -- possibly by adopting a protocol on privileges and immunities of the Commission -- or by an undertaking to be signed by the coastal State when seeking technical and scientific advice from the Commission. The Commission will further consider this matter at its forthcoming session.
Although the Commission had held detailed discussions on a rule dealing with the delimitation of boundaries between States having opposite or adjacent coasts, it decided to defer the adoption of this rule until such time as a Meeting of States Parties could review the provisions formulated by the Commission on the matter.
Modus Operandi
In addition to reviewing its rules of procedure, the Commission is scheduled to examine its modus operandi for the consideration of a submission by a coastal State. An outline of that subject has already been prepared by the Secretariat on the basis of the deliberations in an informal Group of Experts meeting in September 1995 (document SPLOS/CLCS/INF/1).
The Commission will also review the need for establishing sub-commissions to examine the details of submissions, acquisition of the needed technology to enable the Commission to review a submission fully, and whether a need might arise for the Commission to meet outside of Headquarters.
Background on Commission; Its Mandate
The Convention confers on every coastal State jurisdiction over the resources of its continental shelf up to 200 nautical miles from its coastline,
- 3 - Press Release SEA/1559 27 August 1997
where the distance between opposite or adjacent States allows. The distance coincides with a coastal State's jurisdiction over the resources within its exclusive economic zone, which can also extend up to 200 nautical miles.
The Commission was created to deal with specific circumstances where a coastal State wishes to exercise jurisdiction over its continental shelf in an area extending up to 350 nautical miles from its coast line, or 100 nautical miles from the 2,500 metre isobath, which is the line connecting the depth of the ocean at 2,500 metres. In such cases, the coastal State must follow precise formulations laid down in the Convention.
According to the Convention, when a coastal State intends to establish the outer limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, it must submit particulars of such limits to the Commission along with supporting scientific and technical data as soon as possible, but in any case within 10 years of the entry into force of the Convention for that State. It should be noted that the election of the members of the Commission were postponed until March 1997 by a decision of the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Convention, held from 27 November to 1 December 1995.
Since the Convention entered into force on 16 November 1994 for the 60 States whose ratifications made that entry into force possible, and since the commencement of the 10-year period began for them on that date, the Meeting agreed that should any of those States be affected adversely in respect of its obligations under the Convention as a consequence of the change in the date of the election, States Parties, at the request of such a State, would review the situation with a view to ameliorating the difficulty in respect of that obligation.
For its part, the Commission is to consider the data and other material submitted by the coastal State. It is also to provide scientific and technical advice, if requested by the coastal State concerned, during the preparation of this data. Upon receipt of the data submitted by the coastal State, the Commission is to consider the information and then make a recommendation to the coastal State. In case a coastal State disagrees with the recommendations of the Commission, it must make a revised or new submission to the Commission within a reasonable period of time.
The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is comprised of 21 members with expertise in the fields of geology, geophysics or hydrography. They are elected for five-year terms by the States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea. The present Commission was elected by the States parties at their Sixth 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.
- 4 - Press Release SEA/1559 27 August 1997
Membership of Commission
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 St. Claver 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 Mdala (Zambia); Yong-Ahn Park (Republic of Korea); Daniel Rio (France); and K.R. Srinivasan (India).
* *** *