COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF CONCLUDES TWELFTH SESSION

Round-up of Session

COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF CONCLUDES TWELFTH SESSION

(Reissued as received.)

NEW YORK, 8 May (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) -– The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf completed its week-long twelfth session on Friday, 2 May.  It was the first session of the Commission to be held after its extensive examination of the Russian Federation’s submission of data and other material on the limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.

Osvaldo Pedro Astiz and Yao Ubuènalè Woeledji, two of the Commission’s 21 members elected at the Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea in June 2002, who had not been able to attend the eleventh session, took the oath of office before the Commission on Tuesday.

The issue of the consolidation of the rules of procedure of the Commission was discussed, and it was decided that the three documents that governed the procedures and method of operation of the Commission, the Rules of Procedure, Modus operandi and Internal Procedure of the Subcommissions, should be aligned, and serious consideration should be given to their consolidation.  The Commission also discussed the advisability of adding to and amending its operational rules in light of its experience with the submission of the Russian Federation, which was submitted to the Commission in December 2001 and considered during the sessions in 2002.

It was decided that the Commission should proceed with the consolidation into one document of the provisions of an operational nature, but that the Rules of Procedure themselves should remain as a single document.  The Commission decided to make editorial amendments to those Rules, and reissue them at the completion of the exercise.  The Editorial Committee, under the chairmanship of Harald Brekke, was asked to proceed with the review of those documents during the session, and to continue work intersessionally.

Issues of confidentiality in the consideration of a submission and the contents of recommendations made by the Commission to coastal States were also discussed.  The Commission took note of the discussion paper prepared by the Secretariat concerning the legal nature and purpose of the recommendations of the Commission.  The members of the Commission discussed the potential need for additional rules or internal guidelines in light of the relevant provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 (UNCLOS), the current Rules of Procedure and the Commission’s practice.  In particular, the Commission considered it useful to address potential concerns of States that have an interest in determining whether the coastal State has, in fact, applied the Commission’s recommendations in the delineation of the outer limits of its continental shelf.

The Commission concluded that a solution would be for the Commission to establish, in its document dealing with the Modus operandi for the examination of a submission, a provision that the Commission’s recommendations should include an executive summary, containing a general description of the extended continental shelf, as well as a set of coordinates to identify the line describing the outer limits recommended by the Commission and illustrative charts, if appropriate.  Such a summary would not contain information that might be of a confidential nature or which might affect the proprietary rights of the coastal State over the data and information provided in the submission.  The Secretary-General would then be in a position to publicize the summary at his discretion, without causing any prejudice to the requirements of confidentiality as established in annex II to the Rules of Procedure of the Commission.  This could be done at the time when due publicity is to be given, in accordance with article 76, paragraph 9, of UNCLOS, to charts and relevant information, including geodetic data, permanently describing the outer limits of its continental shelf deposited by the coastal State with the Secretary-General.  It could also be done at the request of any State.  The Commission then instructed the Editorial Committee to address the issue as a part of its work on basic documents and prepare a draft provision on the contents of the recommendations.

The Commission was informed by the Secretariat that a training manual was being prepared to assist those engaged in trying to assist States to undertake and complete the necessary preparations for their submissions to the Commission.  The master plan for the manual had already been prepared, and a number of qualified experts from both within and outside the Commission have been invited to participate in its preparation.  The completion of the first draft is expected in September 2003 -- the manual will probably be published as a United Nations sales publication.  The Commission also discussed the possibility of having another open session, similar to the one held in May 2000, in connection with the launching of the manual.

The Chairmen of the subsidiary bodies of the Commission reported on matters related to the terms of reference of their Committees.  Those bodies are the Committee on Confidentiality, whose Chairman is Bakar Jaafar; the Standing Committee on provision of scientific and technical advice to coastal States, of which Philip Symonds is Chairman; the Editorial Committee, chaired by Harald Brekke; and the Training Committee, chaired by Indurlall Fagoonee.

A number of meetings of relevance to the work of the Commission will take place in 2003, among them the Meeting of States Parties to UNCLOS from 9 to 13 June 2003; the Conference on Legal and Scientific Aspects of Continental Shelf Limits in Reykjavik, from 25 to 27 June 2003; the Conference on the Morphology and Geological Nature of Deep Seabed and Submarine Elevations in the Arctic Basin, Saint Petersburg, Russia, from 29 June to 5 July, 2003; and the Third Advisory Board on the Technical Aspects of the Law of the Sea (ABLOS) Biennial Scientific Conference, from 28 to 30 October 2003 at the International Hydrographic Bureau in Monaco.

The next session of the Commission will be held from 25 to 29 August 2003 if a submission is received in time for its consideration by the Commission pursuant to the Rules of Procedure, i.e., by 25 May 2003.  Two sessions are scheduled to be held in 2004, the first from 26 to 30 April, followed by two weeks of meetings of a Subcommission in the event that a submission was made to the Commission in time for its consideration.  The second session is scheduled to be held from 30 August to 3 September, also followed by two weeks of meetings of a Subcommission in the event that a timely submission is made to the Commission.

For additional information, consult the Web site of the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (http://www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm).

* *** *