INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY BEGINS FIFTH SESSION, ELECTS PRESIDENTS OF ASSEMBLY AND COUNCIL
Press Release
SEA/1621
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY BEGINS FIFTH SESSION, ELECTS PRESIDENTS OF ASSEMBLY AND COUNCIL
19990810(Received from the International Seabed Authority.)
KINGSTON, 9 August -- The International Seabed Authority opened its fifth annual session at its headquarters in Kingston this afternoon, with the election of new Presidents to both the Assembly and the Council of the Authority.
The Assembly meeting began with the election of a President, and this year it was the turn of the Latin American and Caribbean Group to nominate a candidate for the post. José Luis Vallarta-Marrón (Mexico), nominated by Chile, was unanimously elected. He takes over from Tadeusz Bachleda-Curus (Poland), who chaired the Assembly last year. Mr. Vallarta is the Mexican Ambassador to Jamaica and its Permanent Representative to the Authority.
Members of the Assembly observed a minute of silence in honour of Arvid Pardo of Malta, who died recently in Houston, Texas. Dr. Pardo was unofficially acknowledged as the "father of the Law of the Sea Conference" because of his contribution to the birth of the modern law of the sea enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. President Vallarta described Dr. Pardo as a "visionary who had a decisive influence on all our work".
The new President of the Council, nominated by the African Group, is Charles Manyang D'Awol (Sudan). He is Director of the Legal Office in the Ministry of External Relations of his country.
Neither the Assembly nor the Council was able to elect vice-presidents, as the regional groups had not yet been able to meet and select their candidates.
During this session, the major task of the Council is to continue its paragraph-by-paragraph examination of the mining code in informal meetings.
The Council must also fill two vacancies on the Legal and Technical Commission following the resignations of two members from that body. It will also consider the budget and the scale of assessments of contributions to the
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Authority for the year 2000. Other items on the Council's agenda include the rules of procedure of the Legal and Technical Commission, and the Financial and Staff Regulations of the Authority.
The work of the Assembly includes consideration of the annual report of the Secretary-General and the adoption of the budget and the scale of assessments. That body will also elect a new member to the Finance Committee. The next Council meeting is scheduled for tomorrow morning, 10 August, while the next meeting of the Assembly will take place early next week. The Council in informal meetings will give priority to its resumed consideration of the mining code for polymetallic nodules.
The Council met today with two of its seats -- those of Canada and the United States -- vacant, as those countries are no longer members of the Authority. The remaining members are:
Group A (4 States from among the largest consumers or net importers of minerals to be derived from seabed mining): Japan, Russian Federation and the United Kingdom (one vacancy).
Group B (4 States from those with the largest investment in seabed mining): China, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Group C (4 States that are major land-based net exporters of minerals found on the deep seabed): Chile, Gabon and Poland (one vacancy).
Group D (6 developing States representing special interests): Brazil, Egypt, Fiji, Jamaica, Oman and the Sudan.
Group E (18 States reflecting the principle of geographical distribution, as well as a balance between developed and developing States): Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Paraguay, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and Ukraine.
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