COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF CONCLUDES THIRTEENTH SESSION

Round-up of Session                                        

COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF concludes thirteenth session

(Delayed in transmission.)

NEW YORK, 21 May (UN Office for Legal Affairs) -- The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf completed its week-long thirteenth session on Friday, 30 April.  During the session, the Commission dealt with a number of items, including amendments to its rules of procedure and its modus operandi, as well as progress in the preparation of a training manual and a response to a letter from the Russian Federation concerning recommendations made by the Commission following the submission by the Russian Federation of information on the proposed outer limits of its continental shelf.

The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf was established in 1997 pursuant to the relevant provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and its annex II.  Its primary functions are to make recommendations to States intending to establish the outer limits of their continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, and to provide scientific and technical advice, if requested, to coastal States during the preparation of the data and other material that would support such an extended continental shelf limit in accordance with the requirements of article 76.

Rules of Procedure and Modus Operandi

At this session, the Commission, working through its Editorial Committee, devoted a considerable amount of its time to the consideration of its modus operandi for the consideration of submissions made to the Commission.  The Editorial Committee revised the document, including certain provisions in the rules of procedure, and expanding or elaborating upon certain provisions in order to align them with the rules of procedure, so that the rules and the modus operandi could stand together as one, coherent document.

The amendments to the rules of procedure were limited almost entirely to such procedural items as elections (rule 12), closure of debate (rule 28), adjournment of debate (rule 29), the majority required for matters of substance (rule 37), announcement of the outcome of the voting and of the election of the officers (rule 40 bis), the conduct of business (rule 43), adoption of other regulations and guidelines and annexes to the rules of procedure (rule 57) and amendments to the rules of procedure (rule 58).

The amendments also dealt with two other matters of a more substantive nature to either bring them into conformity with a decision of the Meeting of States Parties, such as the change in the commencement date of the 10-year time frame for submissions by States to the Commission (rule 44), or to clarify when the representatives of the coastal State may attend the meetings of the Commission (rule 51).

With respect to the deadline for submission, the Commission amended its rules of procedure in order to take into account a decision previously taken by the Meeting of States Parties to the Convention, establishing 13 May 2009 as the deadline for submissions by States that had ratified or acceded to the Convention prior to 13 May 1999.  Under the Convention, a State which intends to establish the outer limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles must submit to the Commission the particulars of such limits along with supporting scientific and technical data within 10 years of the entry into force of the Convention for that State.  In extending the deadline for those States that had ratified or acceded to before 13 May 1999, the Meeting of States Parties took into account a number of factors, including the delay in establishing the Commission itself and the view that States had been in a position to make their submission only after the adoption of the Scientific and Technical Guidelines by the Commission on 13 May 1999.

The establishment of the outer limits beyond 200 nautical miles must be accomplished in accordance with a complex set of rules contained in article 76 of the Convention.  The Scientific and Technical Guidelines (document CLCS/11) elaborate on these scientific criteria and the methods a State should follow in meeting those criteria.

An important clarification of the rules dealt with the representation and participation by States in the proceedings of the Commission during the consideration of that State’s submission (rule 51).  The Convention (annex II, article 5) provides that coastal States may be represented during the relevant proceedings of the Commission without the right to vote.  After providing in rule 51 (rule 52 in the revised version) that a coastal State may be “invited to send its representatives to participate, without the right to vote, in the proceedings deemed relevant by the Commission”, section VII of the Modus Operandi, gives sharper parameters to that issue, and states that the Commission, taking into consideration the particulars of each submission, will identify the proceedings deemed relevant for the participation of the representatives of the submitting coastal State.  It also stipulates that two proceedings would be deemed relevant for all submissions:

(i)            The presentation of the submission by coastal State representatives at the first meeting of the Commission concerning the submission in accordance with paragraph 2.a of section II of the Modus Operandi; and

(ii)  Meetings at which the Subcommission invites the representatives of the coastal State for consultation.

The meetings during which the Commission considers the recommendations submitted by the Subcommission were deemed to be not relevant.

Training and Preparation of Training Manual

The Commission heard a report on the progress of the training manual currently under preparation by the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, in collaboration with Harald Brakke and Galo Carrera, two members of the Commission who are acting as co-coordinators for the project.  The manual is designed to assist coastal States, particularly developing States, in the preparation of data and other material concerning the outer limits of their continental shelf.  The training manual is expected to be of special value in assisting developing States in building their capacity to fulfil their obligations with respect to the preparation of their submissions to the Commission.

With respect to another issue closely related to training, that of the provision of scientific and technical advice to coastal States, the Commission noted that to date there had been no formal requests for advice by a coastal State, a situation that the Commission found to be surprising, given the fact that the provision of such advice is one of the two main functions of the Commission.  The Commission concluded that additional efforts should be made to bring this source of assistance to the attention of coastal States, especially developing States.

Response to Letter from Russian Federation

A letter dated 3 June 2003 from I.F. Glumov, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, which contained questions and comments relating to the Commission’s recommendations with regard to the submission by the Russian Federation on 20 December 2001 of information on the proposed outer limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, had been transmitted to the Chairman.  The members of the Subcommission which dealt with the Russian Federation’s submission prepared a draft response.  That response was approved by the Commission and transmitted by the Secretariat through the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to Mr. Glumov.

Upcoming Submission

The Chairman and the Secretary of the Commission informed other members that in response to a note verbale from the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, seven States had informed the Secretariat that their submissions to the Commission were expected to be completed within the next three years.  More specifically, Australia noted that its submission would be completed before the expiry of the original deadline -– that is, by 16 November 2004.  Brazil indicated that its submission would be made before the end of 2004 (Brazil actually made its submission on 17 May 2004.).  Ireland expects to make its submission in 2005, and Norway at the end of 2006.  Pakistan intends to complete its submission sometime in the 2007/2008 period.  Sri Lanka indicated that its submission would be made in 2007.

Other Matters

The Commission heard a number of reports on scientific and other meetings of interest held in the past year.  Members of the Commission also shared information on upcoming meetings of interest, including the tenth session of the Legal and Technical Commission of the International Seabed Authority; a conference on Arctic Geology, Hydrocarbon Resources and Environmental Challenges 2004 at the Polar Environmental Centre, Norway; and the thirty-second International Geological Congress, Florence, Italy.  (For the dates of these meetings, see UN document CLCS/39, para. 22.)

With respect to upcoming sessions of the Commission, the Commission approved 30 August to 3 September 2004 for its fourteenth session.  As the Brazilian submission has been received since the close of the session, the fourteenth session will take up the issue of that submission, and the one-week Commission session will be followed by two weeks of meetings of a subcommission to examine the Brazilian submission.  It was also decided that two sessions would be held in 2005, the first from 4 to 8 April and the second from 29 August to 2 September, both followed by two additional weeks of meetings of subcommissions in the event that further submissions are 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).

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