FAGALOA TUFUGA OF SAMOA TO RECEIVE LAW OF SEA FELLOWSHIP

Press Release
L/2848
SEA/1572

FAGALOA TUFUGA OF SAMOA TO RECEIVE LAW OF SEA FELLOWSHIP

NEW YORK, 11 December (Office of Legal Affairs) -- The twelfth Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe Fellowship on the Law of the Sea is awarded this year to Fagaloa Tufuga of Samoa. He intends to utilize the research opportunity provided by the Fellowship in order to assist in maritime boundary delimitation negotiations for his Government.

Mr. Tufuga, who holds a LL.M in International Maritime Law, will pursue his research at one of the participating universities, followed by an internship with the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs. His preferred institutions are the Faculty of Law at Oxford University, United Kingdom; the Dalhousie Law School, Halifax, Canada; the Institute of Maritime Law, University of Southampton, United Kingdom; the Research Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; the Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts; the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy, Greece; and the School of Law, University of Washington.

The Amerasinghe Fellowship was established by the General Assembly in 1981 in memory and recognition of the contribution made to the development of the law of the sea by the late Ambassador Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe of Sri Lanka, who presided over the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea from its inception in 1973 until his death in 1980. The Fellowship has been awarded annually for the past 12 years. Previous Fellows have represented nearly all regions of the world. The following countries have benefited from the Fellowship: Cameroon, Chile, Indonesia, Nepal, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, United Republic of Tanzania and the former Yugoslavia.

The Fellows are chosen on the basis of a demonstrated capacity for advanced study in the area of the law of the sea and its implementation, and in marine affairs. The determination for the award is that it would further the chosen Fellow's knowledge and specialization and would be of benefit to his or her country.

The Fellowship is awarded by the Legal Counsel of the United Nations, Hans Corell, on the recommendation of an Advisory Panel composed of eminent persons in international relations and in the law of the sea and its

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implementation. This year's Panel was composed of the following: the Permanent Representative of Jamaica, M. Patricia Durrant; the Permanent Representative of Germany, Tono Eitel; the Permanent Representative of Egypt, Nabil Elaraby; Professor John Norton Moore, Director, Chairman of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy, University of Virginia; the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka, Herman Leonard de Silva; the Permanent Representative of Japan, Hisashi Owada; the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, Sir John Weston; and the Director of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Ismat Steiner.

Over the years, the Advisory Panel, which evaluates the candidates, has urged that the facilities provided by the participating universities should be used to the fullest and that every effort should be made to accommodate more than one Fellowship in each year. The General Assembly, for its part, has repeatedly requested that Member States and interested organizations, foundations and individuals make voluntary contributions towards the financing of the Fellowship.

In addition to those already mentioned, the participating universities are: the Center for Oceans Law and Policy, University of Virginia; the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland; the Institute of International Studies, University of Chile, Santiago; the International Boundaries Research Unit, University of Durham, United Kingdom; the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea, University of Utrecht; the School of Law, University of Georgia; the School of Law, University of Miami; and the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii.

The Fellowship programme continues to attract a wide range of high calibre applicants, with 78 submissions from 37 countries. The programme is steadily growing in interest and is prized for the academic opportunity and the practical experience it provides to the Fellows.

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