NINTH SESSION OF COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF WILL TAKE UP ISSUES

OF TRAINING TO ASSIST DEVELOPING STATES

Commission Will Also Review Internal Procedures

In Handling Submissions for Extended Continental Shelf

NEW YORK, 18 May 2001 (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) -- The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will hold its Ninth session from 21-25 May 2001 to resume its work on preparations for the receipt of submissions from coastal States on the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.  Although the Commission is not mandated by the Convention to conduct or organize training, given the importance of technical and scientific proficiency to gathering and compiling quality data and other material for submissions, it will continue to consider ways to assist governments and competent intergovernmental organizations and institutes to establish and hold training courses for developing States, to assist them in the preparation of the submissions to the Commission in accordance with Article 76 of the Convention.  It will also consider a further elaboration of its procedures to receive and consider submissions, specifically at the sub-commission level.

Since the last session of the Commission in August 2000, the 55^th General Assembly decided to establish two trust funds related to the provisions of article 76 and annex II to the Convention.  The first fund was to defray the expenses of members of the Commission from developing countries to permit them to attend the sessions of the Commission.  The second fund, to which one member State had already contributed one million USD, was to assist developing States, especially the least developed and small island developing States, to provide training for technical and administrative staff, and technical and scientific advice, as well as personnel.  The training was to assist developing States, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, for the purpose of desktop studies and project planning.  It was also aimed at helping those States to prepare and submit information under Article 76 and annex II to the Convention in accordance with the procedures of the Scientific and technical guidelines.

The Commission was elected following the entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.  Its purpose is to facilitate the implementation of its provisions in respect of the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast.  Article 76 provides the rules by which coastal States may establish those outer limits, and coastal States intending to establish them are required to submit the relevant data and information to the Commission within 10 years of the entry into force of the Convention for that State.  The tasks of the Commission are to examine the submission and make recommendations upon which a coastal State may establish those limits, as well as to provide scientific and technical advice, if requested by the coastal State concerned during the preparation of that submission. 

The Commission’s recommendations and actions are without prejudice to the delimitation of boundaries between States with opposite or adjacent coasts.  The outer limits of the continental shelf established by the coastal State on the basis of the Commission’s recommendations are final and binding.  More than

30 States are said to possibly meet the legal and geographical requirements to take advantage of those provisions

The continental shelf is defined in the Convention as the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas which, because of its geological characteristics, is considered as the natural prolongation of the continental or land mass beneath the oceans or seas 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.  The continental margin consists of the shelf, the slope and the rise.  It does not include the deep ocean floor with its oceanic ridges or the subsoil thereof.  The Convention gives coastal States sovereign rights to explore and exploit such resources, which have been estimated as being extremely valuable.

Under specific circumstances, and depending on scientific criteriacontained in Article 76 of the Convention, States may extend their sovereign rights over the resources of the shelf in areas beyond 200 nautical miles.  The determination that these criteria have been met involves the consideration of complex technical and scientific material and data produced by the coastal State.  Some of the criteria which must be determined to set the outer limitsof the extended continental shelf are the location of the foot of the slope of the continental margin, the

2,500-metre isobath, the type of submarine ridges, and the extent of sediment thickness.

The determination of the outer limit of the continental shelf of States is necessary to separate those areas that fall under national jurisdiction from those areas of the seabed to be utilized for the benefit of all nations.  The General Assembly, and later the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, have declared that the resources of the deep seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction -- for example, beyond the limits of a State's continental shelf -- are the common heritage of mankind, to be managed jointly by all States through the International Seabed Authority.

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