SEABED ASSEMBLY ELECTS MEMBERS TO COUNCIL OF AUTHORITY; APPROVES PROTOCOL ON PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES
Press Release
SEA/1582
SEABED ASSEMBLY ELECTS MEMBERS TO COUNCIL OF AUTHORITY; APPROVES PROTOCOL ON PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES
19980330 (Received from the International Seabed Authority.)KINGSTON, 26 March -- The Assembly of the International Seabed Authority, this afternoon, elected 18 members to the Council of the Authority for a four-year term beginning 1 January 1999. The action was taken by consensus following agreement in regional groups and the "Group of 77" developing countries.
The States elected today, comprising half the membership of the 36 member Council, were: Austria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Egypt, Fiji, Germany, Jamaica, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United States.
Also this afternoon, the Assembly approved by consensus the text of a 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. The Protocol will enter into force 30 days after 10 member States ratify or otherwise adhere to it.
The Assembly approved the report of its Credentials Committee. The Committee had accepted the credentials of 70 States and of the European Community which have accredited representatives to the current session.
Election to Council
The pattern of membership in the 36-member Council, set by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, calls for a fixed balance among four interest groups and a fifth group designed to achieve overall geographical balance. The terms are for four years (1999-2002), with half the membership elected every other year. Yesterday, the Assembly decided that the terms would correspond to calendar years. As part of today's decision, the Assembly approved understandings reached in regional and interest groups regarding certain of the seats.
As a result of today's election, membership of the Council will be as follows beginning 1 January 1999:
-- Group A (four States from among the largest consumers or net importers of minerals to be derived from seabed mining): the Russian Federation and the United States were re-elected today. Japan and the United Kingdom, elected in 1996, will remain through 2000.
-- Group B (four States from those with the largest investment in seabed mining): the Netherlands was elected and Geneva was re-elected today. China and France, elected in 1996, will remain through 2000. India will leave at the end of 1998 but, according to a 1996 understanding reaffirmed today, will be elected to a four-year term in 2001.
-- Group C (four States that are major land-based net exporters of minerals found on the deep seabed): Canada was elected today. Australia would replace it for the period 2003-2006, after which the seat would be open to any Group C State. Chile was re-elected today. This seat will be relinquished to Indonesia for the period 2001-2002, after which it would be open to any Group C State.
The seat held since 1996 by Indonesia will be relinquished for 1999-2000 to Poland, according to a 1996 understanding reaffirmed today. The Assembly decided today that this seat would thereafter be open to any Group C State, on the basis that Poland would serve for two years between 2001 and 2006.
The seat held since 1996 by Zambia will be relinquished for 1999-2000 to Gabon, according to a 1996 understanding reaffirmed today. The Assembly decided today that South Africa would thereafter be elected for four years, with the understanding that after two years it would relinquish its seat to Zambia for the third year and to Gabon for the fourth year, whereupon, after 2004, the seat would be open to any Group C State.
-- Group D (six developing States representing special interests): Fiji was elected today. Egypt and Jamaica were re-elected. Egypt and Jamaica. Egypt, which has been a Council member from Group E since 1996, will relinquish its seat at the end of 2000. Jamaica replaced Trinidad and Tobago for 1997/1998, the latter remaining on the Council as a Group E representative.
Brazil and Oman will remain through 2000. Bangladesh and Cameroon will leave at the end of 1998. According to the 1996 understanding, Nigeria will relinquish its seat beginning 1999 to Sudan for the remaining two years.
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-- Group E (18 States reflecting the principle of geographical distribution, as well as a balance between developed and developing States): Austria, Costa Rica, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were elected today. Austria will relinquish its seat at the end of 1999 in favour of Belgium, which will occupy it through 2000, after which the Western European and Others Group will determine who will occupy the seat for the remaining two years. Costa Rica will relinquish its seat after two years in favour of Chile (2001-2002).
Cameroon, Nigeria, Paraguay, Republic of Korea and Tunisia were re-elected today. Argentina, Belgium, Indonesia, Kenya, Namibia, Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ukraine will remain through 2000. In accordance with a 1996 understanding, the Philippines will retain its seat through 1999 and will participate in Council deliberations without a vote during the year 2000, when the Asian Group relinquishes a seat. Cuba, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, South Africa and Tunisia will leave at the end of 1998. Egypt and Sudan, representing Group E on the Council through the end of this year, will remain through 2000 but from Group D.
Protocol on Privileges and Immunities
The Protocol on Privileges and Immunities which the Assembly adopted today covers matters pertaining to the legal status of the Authority, notably the privileges and immunities of members' representatives, Authority officials and experts, and the use of laissez-passer (travel documents) by the Authority's staff.
According to the text, representatives of the Authority's members would enjoy the privileges and immunities normally accorded to diplomats. These would include legal immunity in respect of what they say or do while exercising their functions, inviolability of papers, and exemption from immigration restrictions.
Specified categories of the Authority's officials would also enjoy immunity in regard to their official words or actions. They would also be exempt from immigration restrictions and from taxation of their salaries. The Authority could waive immunity in the interest of justice.
States parties should recognize and accept the United Nations laissez-passer issued to officials of the Authority, without prejudice to the possibility for the Authority to issue its own travel documents. Visa applications from holders of this document would have to be dealt with as speedily as possible.
The Authority would have the legal capacity to enter into contracts, buy and sell property, and be a party in legal proceedings. It could also purchase, hold or transfer currencies, funds and securities, without being restricted by financial controls or regulations.
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The protocol will be open for signature by all members of the Authority in Kingston from 17 to 28 August. After that, it will be open until August 2000 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. While it will enter into force 30 days after the first 10 members of the Authority adhere to it, the Protocol also provides that a State which intends to be a party may at any time give notice that it will apply the instrument provisionally for a period not exceeding two years.
The preamble refers to additional privileges and immunities set out in the Law of the Sea Convention, accorded to the Authority and its Enterprise, the prospective seabed-mining organ. These deal with such matters as immunity from legal process, search and seizure, as well as exemption from restrictions, regulations, controls and moratoria.
The decision by which the Assembly adopted the protocol notes that the provision according privileges and immunities to the Secretary-General of the Authority and the Director-General of the Enterprise would apply to the Director-General "when elected".
The working group that completed the protocol was established by the Assembly in August 1996. It started with a text prepared in 1992 by the Preparatory Commission for the Authority and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and a draft based on it that the secretariat prepared. In the Assembly last March, President S. Amos Wako (Kenya) noted that some members of the Authority had questioned whether a protocol was necessary since many of its provisions were already addressed in the Law of the Sea Convention.
After consultations last March, the secretariat prepared a new, shorter text concentrating on matters not covered in detail in the Convention. At the end of that session, the working group circulated an informal revision of this text, which formed the basis of this year's deliberations.
The protocol was presented to the Assembly today by Zdzislaw Galicki (Poland), Chairman of the working group which completed it over the past two years, including three meetings at the current session. Mr. Galicki said that the working group, open to all members of the Authority, had arrived at the final draft through a long process of gradual compromises.
Japan, Sweden and the United States expressed reservations concerning the protocol, questioning the need to have such an instrument in addition to the Convention. Mexico raised specific reservations in relation to issues such as real estate ownership, privileges and immunities as they applied between States and their own nationals, the transfer and conversion of funds, and tax privileges. Argentina reserved the right to make an explanatory declaration about privileges and immunities as applied to Argentinean nationals.
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