FIFTH SESSION OF COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF TO REVIEW AND ADOPT GUIDELINES
Press Release
SEA/1614
FIFTH SESSION OF COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF TO REVIEW AND ADOPT GUIDELINES
19990428 Expected to Finalize Scientific and Technical GuidelinesNEW YORK, 27 April (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) -- The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will convene its Fifth session from 3 to 14 May to resume its work on the Scientific and Technical Guidelines. The Scientific and Technical Guidelines were adopted provisionally at the end of the fourth session on 4 September 1998, pending final and formal adoption at the up-coming session.
Continental Shelf
The continental shelf is the extension of a coastal State's land territory beneath the oceans or seas. It is defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond a coastal State's territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance. A coastal State exercises jurisdiction over the natural resources of its continental shelf which, in some areas, have been estimated as being extremely valuable.
Extension of Continental Shelf Beyond 200 Miles: Role of Commission
The Commission was created to deal with specific circumstances when geomorphological features allow the coastal State to extend the outer limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles but no further than either 350 nautical miles from its baselines, or 100 nautical miles from the 2,500 metre isobath, which is the line connecting points where the depth of the ocean is at 2,500 metres. In such cases, the coastal State must follow precise formulations laid down in the Convention, and it has to make a submission to the Commission containing the scientific and technical data and information in support of such limits. The Commission shall consider such submission and make a recommendation to the coastal State. The limits of the shelf established by a coastal State on the basis of such a recommendation shall be final and binding.
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Scientific and Technical Guidelines
The Scientific and Technical Guidelines are meant to provide assistance to coastal States regarding the technical nature and scope of the data and information to be included in the submission addressed to the Commission. The Guidelines are of a highly scientific nature; they deal with geodetic and other methodologies for the determination of the outer limit of the continental shelf using such criteria as determination of the foot of the slope of the continental margin, sediment thickness, and structure of submarine ridges and other underwater elevations.
At its Fifth session, the Commission will consider those sections of the Guidelines on which consensus has yet to be reached, and may introduce further changes to the text. It will also continue working on Annex II to the Guidelines, which will contain, among other material, illustrations depicting specific cases of delineation of the outer limits of the continental shelf.
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