Meeting of States Parties

To Law of Sea Convention

54^th Meeting (PM)

STATES PARTIES TO LAW OF SEA CONVENTION INFORMALLY APPROVE

TRIBUNAL BUDGET FOR YEAR 2002

States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea approved the 2002 budget of the International Tribunal during informal consultations, Cristian Maquieira (Chile), President of the Eleventh Meeting of States parties announced this afternoon.

The budget for 2002, which is based on the zero-growth principle, is $7,807,500, compared to the 2001 budget of $8,090,900.  It envisages 10 weeks of Tribunal meetings in 2002, six weeks to deal with cases and four weeks for other purposes.

Also included in the budget is an annual remuneration of judges amounting to $1,295,100, in addition to $318,000 in special allowances and $120,000 for travel by judges.  It also covers $2,187,700 for established posts, $100,000 for general temporary assistance, $50,300 for overtime and $94,700 for official travel.  In addition, the budget allocates $129,000 for temporary assistance for meetings.

The budget allocates $698,300 for the maintenance of the Tribunal’s new permanent premises in Hamburg, Germany, which it occupied last November.  That amount was $173,300 more than the allocation for 2001.

In addition, the budget includes $894,300 in a contingency fund established by the Ninth Meeting of States parties to cover unforeseen case-related expenses.  The 2002 budget would meet the contingency of six weeks of meetings, including the costs of hearings, deliberations and judgements.

Also this afternoon, the States parties decided to hold further discussions on a proposal by the representative of Germany that each Meeting establish an open-ended finance committee of the States parties to review the proposed budget of the Tribunal and to make recommendations to the Meeting.

By that proposal, decisions on budgetary and financial matters would be adopted by consensus based on recommendations of the finance committee of the States parties.  The President of the Meeting would chair the finance committee.

Some delegations expressed reservations about the proposal, saying that the present system of informal consultations of the whole on budgetary matters worked and should be continued.  Others noted that a standing body would have financial implications.

The United Kingdom withdrew a proposal to amend the rules of procedure dealing with decisions on budgetary and financial matters after several delegations expressed reservations.  By that proposal, such decisions would have been taken by a three-fourths majority, provided that such majority included a majority of States parties participating in the Meeting.

Decisions on all other matters of substance would have been taken by a

two-thirds majority of the States parties present and voting, provided that such majority included a majority of States parties participating in the Meeting.

Prior to the withdrawal of that proposal, some delegations pointed out that consensus had worked in the approval of Tribunal budgets and there was no need to change the rules.

Speaking during this afternoon’s discussion were the representatives of the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, Nigeria, Argentina, India, Senegal, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Korea and Spain.  The observer for the United States also spoke.

The States parties will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow to consider the financial regulations of the Tribunal.

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