ASSEMBLY OF SEABED AUTHORITY ELECTS NEW CHAIRMAN OF GROUP ON PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES

Press Release
SEA/1560

ASSEMBLY OF SEABED AUTHORITY ELECTS NEW CHAIRMAN OF GROUP ON PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES

(Delayed in transmission.)

KINGSTON, 25 August -- The Assembly of the International Seabed Authority, meeting this morning at Kingston, unanimously elected Zdzislaw Galicki (Poland) as the new Chairman of the Working Group on the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities, and granted the request of Greenpeace International for observer status with the Authority.

The Secretary-General of the Authority, Satya N. Nandan, informed the Assembly that the Legal and Technical Commission had completed its work on a revised draft of the mining code for the international seabed area, and that the Finance Committee had finished its work on the Authority's 1998 budget. Both bodies met in closed session last week, and the results of their work will be considered by the Council and Assembly before the close of the current session on 29 August.

Professor Galicki, who is Vice-Chairman of the Polish delegation, is the Director of the Institute of International Law at the University of Warsaw. He replaces Wael Aboulmagad (Egypt), who chaired the Group during its meetings at the first part of the Assembly's 1997 session in March.

Secretary-General Nandan noted that the Working Group on the Protocol would be using, as a basis for its work, a document prepared by the Secretariat at the request of the Assembly in March. This text (ISBA/3/A/WP.1/Add.1), containing 13 articles, covers matters pertaining to the legal status of the Authority not dealt with in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, notably the privileges and immunities of members' representatives, officials and experts, and the use of laissez-passer by secretariat staff. The Group was to resume its work immediately after the close of this morning's meeting.

There were no objections to the application of Greenpeace International for observer status with the Authority. Acting President José Luis Vallarta (Mexico) noted that the organization already had observer status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

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However, the representative of Germany pointed out that such status should be restricted to meetings of the Assembly, and not extended to the Legal and Technical Commission as Greenpeace International had requested. The Acting President confirmed that the status would be granted in accordance with the Authority's rules and procedures.

Greenpeace International joins the International Ocean Institute and the Law of the Sea Institute as non-governmental organizations that are allowed to participate as observers in the sessions of the Assembly.

Regarding the work of the Council, which begins a series of meetings this afternoon, Mr. Nandan said it would be given whatever time it needed to consider two matters coming from the Legal and Technical Commission: the draft mining code and the Commission's recommendations on requests by the seven pioneer seabed investors for approval of their plans of work.

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