Background Release

NEWLY ELECTED MEMBERS OF COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF

BEGIN FIVE-YEAR TERM

Commission Continues Examination of Russian Federation Submission

NEW YORK, 24 June (Office of Legal Affairs) -– The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf begins its eleventh session today with the swearing in of the newly elected members and the election of new officers of the Commission.  The session will continue for one week, until 28 June, and will be followed by another one-week session from 26 to 30 August.

The members of the Commission were elected to a five-year term at the twelfth Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which took place in April 2002.  Ralph Zacklin, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy to the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel, will welcome the newly elected members and chair the eleventh session until the election of the Chairman of the Commission.

The swearing-in ceremony, during which the members will make a solemn declaration regarding their duties as members of the Commission, will take place in the afternoon.  Family members and representatives of member States will be present.

Following the ceremony, the Commission will continue its consideration of the scientific data and other material included in the submission by the Russian Federation regarding the outer limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.

The submission of the Russian Federation, made on 20 December 2001, is the first submission by a coastal State to the Commission to establish the outer limits of a continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured (referred to as the extended continental shelf).  The submission contains data and information on the proposed outer limits of the extended continental shelf of the Russian Federation, and was made pursuant to article 76, paragraph 8, of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982, which came into force on 16 November 1994.

At the tenth session in March 2002, experts of the delegation of the Russian Federation, headed by Dr. Ivan Glumov, Deputy Minister for Natural Resources, made a presentation to the plenary of the Commission.  The Commission then elected a subcommission, in accordance with its rules of procedure, to report to the full

Commission with its recommendations for action to be taken by the Commission regarding the recommendations to the submitting State.  In response to requests by the subcommission for clarification and additional data and information, new material was submitted on 3 April and on 15 May 2002 by the Russian Federation.  The subcommission reconvened from 10 to 14 June 2002, and completed its recommendations to the Commission, which will consider them at this session.

The Commission will then make recommendations to the Russian Federation on matters related to the establishment of the outer limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.  Should the coastal State disagree with the recommendations of the Commission, it shall make a revised or new submission to the Commission within a reasonable time.  The outer limits of the shelf established by a coastal State on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission will be final and binding.

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 which were proclaimed by the General Assembly, and later the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to be the common heritage of mankind.  The resources of the deep seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction are to be managed jointly by all States through the International Seabed Authority, a body also established by the Convention.

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