Meeting of States Parties

to Law of Sea Convention

73^rd Meeting (AM)       

STATES PARTIES APPROVE FINANCIAL REGULATIONS FOR LAW OF SEA TRIBUNAL

Also Elect Meeting Vice-Presidents, Members of Credentials Committee

The States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea approved the final version of the Financial Regulations for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, accepted the Tribunal’s financial statement and the External Auditors’ report for 2001, and also elected various officials, as they continued their thirteenth meeting this morning.

Presenting the financial regulations, Secretariat representative Gertrude Blake recounted that an open-ended working group had reached agreement on the draft financial regulations in April 2002.  Due to lack of time, however, the document was not translated into all of the official languages of the United Nations and could not be adopted at that time.

Following her presentation, the meeting agreed that the financial regulations would become effective on 1 January 2004, and would apply to the financial period 2005-2006, as well as to subsequent financial periods.  Among other things, the regulations provide for the presentation of the budget in euros, but allow States parties to pay their contributions in either United States dollars or euros.

Tribunal Registrar Philippe Gautier (Belgium) presented the financial statement of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the report of the External Auditors for the financial year 2001 (document SPLOS/93).  The auditors had concluded, he said, that Tribunal financial statements had been presented fairly and in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles, as well as the Financial Regulations of the United Nations.

Also this morning, the States parties elected, by acclamation, Manuel Acosta Bonilla of Honduras; Julian Vassalo of Malta; Hahn Myung-jae of Republic of Korea; and Soumaia Zorai of Tunisia as Vice-Presidents of the meeting.  In addition, Algeria, Czech Republic, Fiji, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Trinidad and Tobago, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines were elected as members of the Credentials Committee.

The States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea will meet again on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. to consider the budget and other financial matters.

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