URGENT ACTION NEEDED ON DETERIORATION OF OCEANS, PANEL ON SEA LAW CONVENTION IS TOLD

Fifty-seventh General Assembly

Information Panel 2

 on Law of the Sea (PM)                       

URGENT ACTION NEEDED ON DETERIORATION OF OCEANS,

PANEL ON SEA LAW CONVENTION IS TOLD

Delegate Cites Accidental Oil Spills, Other Dangerous

Conditions, Asserting 'The Oceans are Source of Life; the Oceans are Sick'

Urgent action to deal with deterioration of the oceans was called for this afternoon, during one of two panel discussions at Headquarters held as part of the two-day commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea being open for signature.

The panels were convened to address "The Dynamism of the Convention: challenges for the present and solutions for the future".

Addressing the second panel, Felipe Paolillo, Permanent Representative of Uraguay, said "The oceans are the source of life and the oceans are sick”.  He called for the situation to be addressed urgently.  He cited recent accidental oil spills to make the point that the deterioration of the oceans in recent years was disturbing. 

He said other dangerous conditions created by human activity included excess growth of certain types of vegetation that threatened the ecosystem and increases in criminal activities such as trafficking in drugs and people.

Relevant provisions of the Convention needed to be updated, he said.  The deterioration of the oceans, came from inadequate implementation of the Convention, rather than from any inherent weakness in it.  Lack of information, inadequate resources, insufficient infrastructure and lack of political will were among the causes of slow implementation.  Remedies included publicity campaigns, recruitment of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to the effort and assisting countries that lacked implementation resources.   

The second panel convened on the issue had among its sub-themes the challenge of ensuring the effectiveness of the Convention’s rules, an approach that focused on the role of non-States actors or regional considerations in implementing the Convention.  Another sub-theme was to examine emerging concepts for developing and strengthening the legal regime for the oceans, which was the ecosystem-based approach that included marine protected areas and oceans

stewardship.  A third sub-theme was to look at the tools of change, or the amendment procedure for the Convention.

Other participants in the panel were Bernard Oxman (United States) and Michael Bliss (Australia).  The United Nations Legal Counsel, Hans Correll, also took part, as did Anik Dimarfi, Director of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea within the Office of Legal Affairs.  Moderating the panel was Hasjim Djalal (Indonesia).

Mr. Bliss urged the establishment of marine-protected areas and an integrated ocean management system.  He also urged transparency in the cooperation and coordination between the appropriate institutions.  He spoke of the need for conservation of resources of the oceans.

He said the establishment of marine-protected areas should cover a number of activities such as fisheries.  He referred to the need for effective enforcement, as well as the need to establish transnational marine-protected areas.  He observed that a draft resolution on the Oceans and the Law of the Sea, which would be acted upon tomorrow in the General Assembly, would call upon States, in promoting conservation and management of oceans, to develop and facilitate the use of diverse approaches and tools, including the ecosystem approach.

Mr. Oxman spoke of several of the Convention’s provisions, noting that the instrument was one of the rare treaties that articulated a basic environmental norm in unqualified form.  The Convention provided that States had the obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment, including marine life and the ecosystems and habitats that supported such life.  He noted that it set out obligations for the development of international rules and standards on sources of pollution.

The Convention was replete with references to the right, and often the duty, of States to cooperate on a bilateral, regional, or global basis in implementing its provisions, he pointed out.  It encouraged agreements on all levels to address specific problems and to adapt the law to new challenges.  Many of its provisions were subject to arbitration or adjudication.  He urged better coordination of existing mechanisms related to the oceans and the seas.

The Chairman, Mr. Djalal, summarized the points made by the panellists, including the lack of information, lack of priorities, lack of resources or political will in implementing the Convention’s provisions.  Answers included the distribution of information, the running of information campaigns and the rendering of assistance to countries needing it.

He noted that a more integrated approach to protecting the ocean had been called for, including coordination between regional organizations, and that another panellist had questioned the need for an integrated approach on a global level since many issues related to the interests of a narrower geographic scope.

Speakers in the audience brought up a number of legal angles on the Convention.  Had the Convention been broadly enough conceived for modern amendments?  What about conflicts in jurisdiction between the Convention and two

supplementary resolutions, on the implementation agreement and the resolution on straddling and highly migratory fusgubg stocks?

Mr. Oxman said no amendments had ever been made, but a number of  implementation provisions had been added.  In practice everything was working out through the Seabed Authority.

Another speaker from the audience surveyed the steps being taken to address problems with regard to preserving the ecosystem in a comprehensive, coordinated and integrated way.  In response, Mr. Bliss noted that a meeting on marine biodiversity would be held in his country next year.

Another speaker called for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to immediately implement safety measures on the transportation of oil.  Single hull tankers should be prohibited earlier than the 2005 planned date for phasing them out.  The European Union had already banned them, Mr. Djalal said.

Summing up, Mr. Djalal said the question of informal approaches to ocean management and to resolution of maritime affairs had not been touched upon during the discussions, and he recalled their adoption in averting potential conflicts in South-East Asia.  The informal approaches included dialogue, confidence-building measures and devising cooperative programmes.  He said China and Viet Nam adopted such methods in resolving a maritime dispute.  He commended informal approaches to other States in resolving maritime disputes.

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