INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY TO RESUME WORK ON MINING CODE
Press Release
SEA/1573
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY TO RESUME WORK ON MINING CODE
19980313 Background Release (Received from the International Seabed Authority.)KINGSTON, 12 March -- A set of rules to govern exploration for mineral resources in areas of the deep seabed beyond the jurisdiction of individual countries will be the priority item as the International Seabed Authority meets in Kingston on 16 March for the first portion of its two-part annual session.
Both of the Authority's principal organs -- the Assembly, composed of all 136 member States and one entity (European Community), and the 36-member Council -- will convene for two weeks (16-27 March) at the organization's headquarters. The final part of the session is scheduled for August.
The Authority began work on the seabed mining code in March 1997, as its first substantive business. The text now before it, a third draft that is not yet complete, was drawn up last August by the Legal and Technical Commission, a 22-member expert body elected by the Council. The Commission hopes to complete its text during the first week of the coming session, and submit the results for approval by the Council and Assembly.
The Seabed Authority was established by Part XI (seabed provisions) of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which entered into force in 1994. Its operations are also governed by the 1994 Agreement relating to Implementation of Part XI, in effect since 1996.
Those multilateral treaties establish a regime, with the Authority as controlling body, for regulating all resource-related conduct in the international seabed area by States and other entities, including international consortia and private national companies.
The mining code now being drafted will incorporate a model contract and standard terms for exploration contracts between the Authority and the entities exploring the ocean floor. Last August the Council authorized the
first contracts under that regime to seven investor groups from 11 States. Those contracts can be formally concluded once the Council has approved a mining code.
The text under review, limited to prospecting and exploration for polymetallic nodules rich in manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper, represents the first instalment of a broader code that is to encompass rules, regulations and procedures for the conduct of activities in the international seabed area as they progress, as well as standards for the protection and preservation of the marine environment in relation to resource development.
The Council, and later the Assembly, will also take up again a draft agreement between the Authority and the Government of Jamaica concerning the headquarters of the Authority. The Government has recently informed the Authority that it has decided to offer for use as permanent headquarters the office block in Kingston where the secretariat of the Authority has been located since its establishment in 1994.
The Finance Committee hopes to complete work on the financial regulations of the Authority, for approval by the Council and Assembly. A working group of the Assembly will resume drafting a protocol on the privileges and immunities of the Authority, including its staff and representatives of member States. A new item concerns a proposed relationship agreement between the Authority and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
As the term of half of the Council's members will be up this year, the Assembly is to elect new members for a two-year term. Both organs are to choose new Presidents.
Mining Code
The draft code which the Legal and Technical Commission prepared last August, and which it will elaborate further next week, spells out, in legal and practical detail, procedures to regulate prospecting and exploration for polymetallic nodules in the international seabed area. Its terms are based on provisions in the Law of the Sea Convention and the Implementation Agreement. The basic text sets out the framework for the exploration regime, while annexes contain a model contract and standard clauses.
The provisional text defines the manner in which interested parties can become seabed contractors by obtaining the Authority's approval of their plans of work for exploration in specified geographical areas. Applicants must be sponsored by States, and must possess certain financial and technical capabilities. They would have to supply specified kinds of information in support of their plans and pay a $250,000 fee. Plans of work would require approval by the Commission and consideration by the Council, subject to the
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provision in the Implementation Agreement that the plans of registered pioneer investors shall be considered approved by the Council.
Once a plan of work was approved, the Authority would issue a 15-year contract granting recognized security of tenure. That would incorporate schedules giving the geographical coordinates and an illustrative chart of the exploration area, as well as a work programme that would be reviewed every five years jointly by the Authority and the contractor. Each contractor would be obligated to provide a training programme for personnel of the Authority and developing countries.
The obligation of contractors to keep books and records and to submit annual reports is spelled out, as is a requirement to submit information once the contract expires. The confidentiality of information submitted to the Authority by contractors would be assured.
Contractors would be obliged to accept inspection by the Authority, comply with safety, labour and health standards, and accept responsibility and liability for damage. The Authority would have the right to suspend or terminate the contract and to impose penalties under certain circumstances.
One part of the draft is devoted to measures to protect and preserve the marine environment. The standard clauses mandate joint reviews of exploration activities and environmental monitoring, and provide for contingency plans and measures to be taken in the event of emergencies likely to cause serious harm to the marine environment. The rights and interests of coastal States would be recognized, and the Council would be authorized, on the Commission's recommendation, to issue emergency protection orders.
Environmental protection and preservation was one of three areas of special concern to the Commission in drawing up this text, according to its Chairman, Jean-Pierre Lenoble (France), who presented the draft last August. The other two were annual reporting and the transfer of data by contractors to the Authority, and confidentiality of the information submitted. The Law of the Sea Convention gives the Authority, through its Council, broad discretionary powers to assess the potential environmental impact of a given deep seabed mining operation, recommend changes, formulate rules and regulations, establish a monitoring programme and issue emergency orders to prevent serious environmental damage. States are to be held liable for any damage caused by either their own enterprise or contractors under their jurisdiction.
Quick implementation of that contractual regime was assured during the Council's session last August with the approval of plans of work submitted by all seven of the pioneer investors registered for deep seabed activities. Those are: the Governments of India and the Republic of Korea; organizations sponsored respectively by China, France, Japan and the Russian Federation, and
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an organization formed by five Eastern European States and Cuba. The Council authorized the Secretary-General of the Authority, Satya N. Nandan, to issue contracts to the seven investors, a step which awaits approval of the mining regulations.
According to a schedule drawn up by the secretariat, the Legal and Technical Commission will work intensively on the draft throughout next week, following opening meetings of the Assembly and Council on Monday, 16 March. The Commission meets in closed session. Under an arrangement agreed last August, up to 15 members of the Authority will be able to sit in on Commission meetings as non-participating observers. The results will be forwarded to the Council for action during the second week.
Headquarters Agreement
The Council and Assembly will resume consideration of a 54-article draft agreement with the Government of Jamaica on the headquarters of the Authority, covering the legal status of its establishment in Jamaica, including its current rented premises in Kingston and its future permanent location in the country (ISBA/3/A.L.3-ISBA.3.C.L.3). Action on the text was put off twice last year to await Government proposals on the site of a permanent headquarters.
The Government has informed the Authority, in a letter dated 10 March, that it has decided to offer to the Authority, for its permanent use and occupation, the office block in downtown Kingston where the secretariat has been accommodated since its establishment in 1996. Arrangements would continue for use of the adjoining Jamaica Conference Center for meetings of the Authority.
Other Items
A draft agreement on the relationship between the Authority and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea will be taken up by the Council and Assembly. The Tribunal, located in Hamburg, Germany, was established under the Law of the Sea Convention to deal with legal disputes relating to all aspects of the Convention, including its seabed provisions. Disputes over seabed activities will be dealt with by an 11-member Seabed Disputes Chamber, already established by the Tribunal. The Chamber has compulsory jurisdiction over all such conflicts, whether involving States, the Authority, or companies or individuals having seabed mining contracts.
A working group established last year is to continue consideration of a draft protocol on the privileges and immunities of the Authority, spelling out the legal entitlements and obligations of the Authority, its officials and representatives of member States.
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The 15-member Finance Committee will try to complete work on the financial regulations of the Authority, governing the authorization, expenditure and control of funds. As an autonomous intergovernmental organization, the Authority, which was previously funded from the United Nations budget, will, starting this year, be financed entirely by assessed contributions from its own members, under a $4,703,900 budget approved last August. A budget for 1999 will be considered during the August part of this year's session.
If time permits, the Committee, chaired by S. Rama Rao (India), will also take up draft staff regulations. The results of its work will be passed to the Council and then the Assembly.
Elections
The Assembly is to elect half of the members of the 36-nation Council to replace States whose initial two-year term expires in 1998. The Law of the Sea Convention identified five groups of States from which Council membership is to be drawn. When the Assembly held the first election in 1996 it also approved an understanding to govern certain aspects of subsequent elections. The status of membership in the Council is as follows:
-- Group A (4 States from among the largest consumers or net importers of minerals to be derived from seabed mining): Japan and the United Kingdom (through 1999), and the Russian Federation and United States (through 1997 with the understanding that they could be re-elected for another four years if they so wished).
-- Group B (4 States from those with the largest investment in seabed mining): China and France (through 1999), Germany (to be re-elected in 1998 for four more years) and India (through 1997, to be reelected in 2000 for four years). The Netherlands is to be elected beginning 1998 for four years.
-- Group C (4 States that are major land-based net exporters of minerals found on the deep seabed): Australia and Chile (through 1997), Indonesia (relinquishes its seat after 1997 to Poland for the remaining two years) and Zambia (relinquishes its seat after 1997 to Gabon for the remaining two years). Indonesia and Zambia, as well as any other Group C member, can contest the seats to be vacated by Australia and Chile.
-- Group D (6 developing States representing special interests): Bangladesh, Cameroon and Jamaica (through 1997); Brazil and Oman (through 1999), and Nigeria (relinquishes its seat beginning 1998 to Sudan for the remaining two years). Egypt, already on the Council for two years from Group E, will retain its seat as a member from Group D for two more years starting
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in 1988, after which it will be replaced by another African Group candidate. Jamaica replaced Trinidad and Tobago for one year in 1997, the latter remaining on the Council as a Group E representative.
-- Group E (18 States reflecting the principle of geographical distribution, as well as a balance between developed and developing States): Argentina, Kenya, Namibia, Philippines, Senegal and Ukraine (through 1999); Belgium (through 1998); Italy (through 1999, but relinquishes its seat to Belgium in 1998 and resumes it in 1999), and Cuba, Egypt, Malaysia, Paraguay, Poland, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia and Ukraine (through 1997). Paraguay gave its seat to Trinidad and Tobago in 1997 but remained on the Council through that year in the seat relinquished for one year by the Western European and Others Group. As noted above, Egypt and Sudan will remain on the Council for two more years through 1999, but from Group D.
The 1996 agreement allocates 10 seats to the African Group, 9 to the Asian Group, 8 to the Western European and Others Group, 7 to the Latin American and Caribbean Group, and 3 to the Eastern European Group. As this totals one more than the 36 available seats, it was agreed that, in each of the first four years, one group other than the Eastern European would forgo a seat, in rotation: the Latin American and Caribbean in 1996, the Western European and others in 1997, the African in 1998 and the Asian in 1999. During the year when it relinquishes a Group E seat, each group may designate a member to participate in the Council's deliberations without the right to vote. Austria participated on that basis in 1997 (it will occupy a regular seat for the year 1998) and the Philippines will do so in 1999.
As the initial terms of Council members began following their election by the Assembly in March 1996, the Council will start its 1998 meetings with its 1997 membership. The Assembly must decide on the timing of future elections and the date when each term begins and ends -- a matter not resolved in 1996.
The Assembly must also replace Samia Ladgham (Tunisia) who has resigned from the Finance Committee.
Both the Assembly and the Council are to elect new Presidents, to succeed those chosen for 1997 -- S. Amos Wako (Kenya) of the Assembly and Lennox Ballah (Trinidad and Tobago) of the Council.
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Members of Authority
The 137 members of the Authority, including 14 provisional members (P), are: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh (P), Barbados, Belarus (P), Belgium (P), Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada (P), Cape Verde, Chile, China, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, European Community (P), Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon (P), Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic (P), Lebanon, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Monaco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar.
Also Namibia, Nauru, Nepal (P), Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland (P), Portugal, Qatar (P), Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland (P), The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine (P), United Arab Emirates (P), United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States (P), Uruguay, Viet Nam, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
All States parties to the Law of the Sea Convention are members of the Authority. In addition, provisional members are States (and the European Community) that have not adhered to the Convention but have notified in writing their intention to apply it and the Implementation Agreement provisionally. Provisional membership must be approved in each case by the Council, usually for two years but in some cases for one year, provided it is satisfied that the requesting party has been making good-faith efforts to adhere to the Agreement and the Convention. The Council is to consider such requests next week.
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