SEABED ASSEMBLY MATCHES COUNCIL TERMS TO CALENDAR YEAR
Press Release
SEA/1581
SEABED ASSEMBLY MATCHES COUNCIL TERMS TO CALENDAR YEAR
19980326 (Received from the International Seabed Authority.)KINGSTON, 25 March -- The Assembly of the International Seabed Authority decided this afternoon that the terms of office of members of the Authority's Council should be harmonized with the calendar year. The decision was taken without discussion or objection.
As a result of this decision, the Council will retain its 1997 membership to the end of 1998. An election for new members, to serve a four-year term beginning in 1999, is scheduled to take place in the Assembly tomorrow afternoon.
Today's decision reads as follows:
"The Assembly of the International Seabed Authority
"Decides, in order to harmonize the terms of office of members of the Council with the calendar year, that the terms of office of those members of the Council elected in 1998 will commence on 1 January 1999 for a period of four calendar years and that the terms of office of those members of the Council elected in 1996 for a two-year term will end on 31 December 1998, while the terms of office of those members elected in 1996 for a four-year term will end on 31 December 2000."
Assembly President Tadeusz Bachleda-Curus (Poland) read out the following statement: "The decision that the Assembly has just taken does not in any way affect arrangements reached in interest or regional groups regarding any of the seats on the Council. These arrangements include those reached in 1996 as well as those reached at this session".
The President added that all regional groups, in consultations this morning, had accepted the terms of the decision and his statement.
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In 1996, when electing the initial group of Council members to two- and four-year terms, the Assembly approved arrangements under which some members were to relinquish their seats to others before the end of their term.
The decision taken today was originally placed before the Assembly yesterday, 24 March, but action was deferred to clarify points raised by some representatives concerning the effect on previously agreed arrangements.
Mining Code Discussion in Council
At this afternoon's meeting of the Council, Australia, Chile, Italy and the observer from the International Ocean Institute continued the general discussion on the draft mining code for polymetallic nodules submitted by the Legal and Technical Commission.
Australia expressed concerned that no specific mention was made in the code of ways for the Authority to ensure compliance by seabed contractors with the Authority's regulations. Chile highlighted the need for coastal States to be aware of all mining activities near them and said that confidentiality of data generated by contractors should not deprive those States of basic knowledge of operations in their vicinity. Italy said the rules of clarity and simplicity should prevail as the Council worked towards a text that could be endorsed by all members.
The observer from the International Ocean Institute listed four issues which, in her view, merited the attention of the Authority: the laying of fibre-optic cables on the ocean floor, the destruction of flora and fauna, intellectual property rights, and the need to expand regulation 33, concerning resources other than polymetallic nodules, to bring it in line with the articles of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The next meeting of the Assembly is scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. tomorrow, 26 March, when it is expected to elect new Council members and to begin consideration of the draft protocol on the privileges and immunities of the Authority. The Council, which began this morning a series of informal meetings taking up the draft code paragraph by paragraph, will continue this task tomorrow morning. After the Assembly's afternoon meeting, the Council will hold its final formal meeting of the March session to hear further general statements on the mining code.
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