INTERNATIONAL SEA LAW TRIBUNAL RECEIVES FIRST CASE, ALLEGING ILLEGAL DETENTION OF SHIP OFF WEST COAST OF AFRICA
Press Release
SEA/1571
INTERNATIONAL SEA LAW TRIBUNAL RECEIVES FIRST CASE, ALLEGING ILLEGAL DETENTION OF SHIP OFF WEST COAST OF AFRICA
19971118 Saint Vincent and Grenadines Claims Cargo Vessel and Crew Being Held Hostage by Guinea: Hearing to Take Place Shortly in Hamburg(Delayed in transmission.)
HAMBURG, 13 November (Registry, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea) -- The Registrar of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea today received the first application instituting a case before the Tribunal. This came almost immediately after the adoption of the Rules of the Tribunal, and one year after its inauguration. The Tribunal has also adopted guidelines concerning the preparation and presentation of cases, and a resolution on the internal judicial practice of the Tribunal.
In the first application, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines institutes proceedings against the Government of Guinea with regard to the alleged arrest of the merchant ship "Saiga" off the coast of West Africa, and asks the Tribunal to order the prompt release of the vessel, its cargo and crew detained in Conakry, Guinea.
The application states, "the vessel was attacked by representatives of the Guinean Government who shot at the ship and crew and injured four of them before taking control of the vessel. The vessel was brought into Conakry, Guinea, at around 2100 on 28 October 1997. Two seriously injured crew have since been allowed to leave. The vessel and remaining crew continue to be held hostage at Conakry."
The application is based on article 292 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, whereby the authorities of a government of a State which is party to the Convention have detained a vessel flying the flag of another State party to the Convention, and it is alleged that the detaining State has not complied with the requirements of the Convention for the prompt release of the vessel or its crew upon the posting of a reasonable bond or other financial security.
Saint Vincent says Guinea has not sought any bond or other financial security in respect of the detention of the vessel, nor has it advised any interested party of the reasons for its action. It has not allowed access to the crew remaining on board.
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A copy of the application, with all its attachments, has been sent to the Government of Guinea, which has until 24 hours before the date of the first hearing to provide its response.
By the Rules of the Tribunal, the date for a hearing is to be set within 10 days of the receipt of the application. The Judges are to meet in Hamburg, the seat of the Tribunal, on 20 November, and the first hearing is expected to take place on the next day. Each party will be accorded one day to present their evidence and arguments. A second date for the hearing will probably be 24 November. The Judges then have 10 days to deliberate and their judgement should be delivered on 4 December. It will be read at a public sitting of the Tribunal.
Since the Tribunal has not yet entered into its permanent premises, which are still under construction, the authorities of the host country, Germany, are taking steps to provide a suitable courtroom and facilities for the hearing.
The members of the Tribunal are President Thomas A. Mensah (Ghana), Vice-President Rudiger Wolfrum (Germany) and Judges Lihai Zhao (China), Hugo Caminos (Argentina), Vicente Marotta Rangel (Brazil), Alexander Yankov (Bulgaria), Soji Yamamoto (Japan), Anatoly Lazarevich Kolodkin (Russian Federation), Choon-Ho Park (Republic of Korea), Paul Bamela Engo (Cameroon), L. Dolliver M. Nelson (Grenada), P. Chandrasekhara Rao (India) Joseph Akl (United Republic of Tanzania), Edward Arthur Laing (Belize), Tullio Treves (Italy), Mohamed Mouldi Marsit (Tunisia), Gudmundur Eiriksson (Iceland) and Tafsir Malick Ndiaye (Senegal).
International Tribunal
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is an independent international judicial institution which has been established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Convention is one of the most comprehensive international treaties ever completed, defining the outer limits to which coastal States can claim jurisdiction in their adjacent waters and regulating prominent issues such as fisheries and navigation. A chapter of the Convention is devoted to the prevention of pollution of the marine environment, and the Convention also pronounces the resources of the deep seabed as the common heritage of mankind. It set up the International Seabed Authority to regulate the exploitation of the deep seabed. At present, 122 States are party to the Convention.
The Convention gives the International Tribunal jurisdiction to deal with a variety of international disputes, involving such areas as fisheries, navigation, ocean pollution and the delimitation of maritime zones. The Tribunal also has compulsory jurisdiction over the prompt release of arrested vessels and their crews in certain circumstances and under certain conditions.
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