In progress at UNHQ

SEA/1672

COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS 1-5 MAY

28 April 2000


Press Release
SEA/1672


COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS 1-5 MAY

20000428 Background Release

The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf -– one of three institutions created by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea -– will hold an open meeting on Monday, 1 May, at the start of its five-day seventh session at Headquarters.

Due to the nature of its mandate, the Commission generally meets in closed session to consider data and information -– sometimes confidential -– submitted by coastal States. The open meeting is intended to familiarize States “with the necessity to implement the provisions of article 76 and annex II to the Convention”, according to General Assembly resolution A/RES/54/31. It was also intended to explain to policy makers and legal advisers benefits coastal States may derive from implementing the provisions of the article. Similarly, the experts in marine science and individuals from academia will also learn how the Commission considers that its scientific and technical guidelines should be applied in practice.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the continental shelf of a coastal State comprises the submerged prolongation of its land territory -– the seabed subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea to the outer edge of the continental margin or to a distance of 200 nautical miles. The continental margin consists of the seabed and subsoil of the shelf, the slope and the rise. It does not include the deep ocean floor with its oceanic ridges or the subsoil.

Article 76 provides the rules by which coastal States may establish the outer limits of their continental shelves beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. More than 30 States are said to meet the legal and geographic requirements to take advantage of those provisions.

Coastal States intending to establish those outer limits are required by article 76 to submit the relevant data and information to the Commission. The task of the Commission is to examine the submission and make recommendations upon which a coastal State may establish those limits. The Commission’s recommendations and actions are without prejudice to the delimitation of boundaries between States with opposite or adjacent coasts. Its recommendations are final and binding.

In accordance with article 4 of annex II to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the particulars of such limits should be submitted to the

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Commission within 10 years of the entry into force of the Convention for that State.

Almost three years have passed since the first session of the Commission took place in June 1997. Since then, the Commission has been engaged in an organizational process, including the preparation of its basic documents. That phase was completed in September last year. The most important document produced by the Commission to date for the benefit of coastal States in preparing their submissions for the establishment of their continental shelf is the Scientific and Technical Guidelines (CLCS/11 and Add.1).

The Scientific and Technical Guidelines are of a highly scientific nature. They deal with geodetic and other methodologies stipulated in article 76 for the establishment 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 sixth session last year, the Commission adopted annexes to the Guidelines which included flow charts providing a simplified outline of the procedures described in relevant parts of the Guidelines themselves. The Commission considered the issues of training necessary to develop the knowledge and skills for preparation of the submissions in respect of the outer limits of the continental shelf required by the Convention.

During next week’s closed session, from 2 to 5 May, the Commission will continue discussion of a draft outline for a training course of about five days’ duration for those who would take part in the preparation of the submission of a coastal State. It is also expected to consider the establishment of a trust fund to assist in financing the participation of Commission members from developing countries in its work.

The other two institutions created by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are the International Seabed Authority, with headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica, and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, based in Hamburg, Germany.

Members of Commission

The 21 members of the Commission were elected for a term of five years on 13 March 1997 and began their term of office on the date of the first meeting of the Commission -- 16 June 1997.

The members who serve in their personal capacity are: Aleandre Tagore Medeiros de Albuquerque, Osvaldo Pedro Astiz, Lawrence Folajimi Awosika, Ali Ibrahim Beltagy, Samuel Sona Betah, Harald Brekke, Galo Carrera Hurtado, Peter F. Croker, Noel Newton St. Claver Francis, Kazuchika Hamuro, Karl H.F.Hinz, A. Bakar Jaafar, Mladen Juracic, Yuri Borisovitch Kazmin, Ian C. Lamont, Chisengu Leo Mdala, Wenzheng Lu, Yong Ahn Park, Daniel Rio, Krishna-Swami Ramachandran Srinivasan and Andre Chan Chim Yuk. Mr. Kazmin is Chairman of the Commission.

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For information media. Not an official record.