UN SECRETARY-GENERAL COMMENDS SEABED AUTHORITY’S INSPIRING WORK, JAMAICAN PRIME MINISTER PLEDGES CONTINUED SUPPORT, DURING TENTH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL COMMENDS SEABED AUTHORITY’s INSPIRING WORK, JAMAICAN Prime

Minister PLEDGES continued SUPPORT, During TENTH ANNIVERSARY Commemoration

(Reissued as received.)

KINGSTON, 25 May (International Seabed Authority) -- The International Seabed Authority this morning began a two-day commemoration of its tenth anniversary with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan commending the Authority’s key role in efforts under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to manage the diverse challenges associated with ocean space and its uses.

In a message read by Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Ralph Zacklin at a special session of the Authority’s policy-making Assembly, the Secretary-General also praised the Authority for its diligent and inspiring work over the past decade, and for showing that multilateral approaches to global challenges could be effective, equitable and enduring.

The Most Honourable P.J. Patterson, Prime Minister of Jamaica, which is host to the International Seabed Authority, said his Government had done all it could to ensure that the Authority settled into its new home easily and comfortably.  The signing of the Headquarters Agreement in 1999 and the completion of the Supplementary Agreement, slated to be presented at the current ordinary session of the Assembly, was a strong signal of his Government’s long-term commitment and dedication.

The occasion also marked the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on 16 November 1994.  The International Seabed Authority was established soon after the Convention entered into force with the sixtieth ratification and accession on that date.  The Convention had been opened for signature at Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 10 December 1982.  The commemoration was brought forward to coincide with the tenth session of the Authority.

Satya N. Nandan, the Secretary-General of the Authority, in his statement, said there was an urgent need to enhance efforts in the research and exploration of the oceans.  He had drawn the attention of the United Nations General Assembly at its last session to the need for a declaration in support of ocean research and exploration.  Without adequate scientific research, management of the oceans would not be based on sound scientific knowledge, he said.

Judge L. Dolliver M. Nelson, President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, appealed for moral and material support of the international community as a whole for the successful achievement of the objectives underlying the Tribunal’s establishment.  The Tribunal’s composition ensured the representation of the principal legal systems of the world and equitable geographical distribution.

Judge Jose Luis Jesus, also of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and Chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, said the progress achieved by the Authority in implementing its mandate had brought the possibilities of commercial exploitation of the seabed mineral resources a step closer to reality.

In a welcoming statement Dennis Francis (Trinidad and Tobago), President of the Assembly, said the Authority’s work had now entered the crucial phase of undertaking the operational aspects of exploration for mineral resources from the deep seabed.

Messages from Tommy Koh of Singapore, President of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (1981-82), and Joseph Warioba, a former Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania and First President of the Preparatory Commission for the International Seabed Authority and for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, commending the achievements of the Authority were read by Nii Allotey Odunton, Deputy Secretary-General of the Authority.

Statements were also made by the chairpersons of the five regional groups:  Sandile Nogxina, South Africa, for the African Group, Hai-ung Jung, Republic of Korea, on behalf of the Asian group, Olav Myklebust, Norway, for the Western European and Others Group, Antonin Parizek, Czech Republic, for the Eastern European Group, and Cézar de Souza Lima Amaral, Brazil, for the Latin American and Caribbean States Group.  

Two panel discussions will be held this afternoon and tomorrow, Wednesday, 26 May, on the achievements and future directions and prospects of the Authority as part of the commemoration.

The 145-member International Seabed Authority organizes and controls all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.  The Authority operates by awarding contracts to private and public corporations and entities to explore and eventually exploit specified areas on the seabed for mineral resources.

Statements

DENNIS FRANCIS (Trinidad and Tobago), President of the Assembly, welcoming the delegates, said the work of the International Seabed Authority had now entered the crucial phase of undertaking the operation aspects of exploration for mineral resources from the deep seabed.

Rules and regulations for prospecting and exploration of polymetallic nodules had been adopted and regulations for other new resources were currently under consideration.

In dealing with those very complex technical issues, the Authority had not only received the support of its Member States, but had also benefited immeasurably from the cooperation of the scientific community.

SATYA N. NANDAN, Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority, said the past ten years had been formative ones for the Authority.  The period had been particularly challenging given the history of discord and dissent that accompanied the adoption of the Convention in 1982.  The most important task had been to win the confidence of the international community in the institutions and the system established for the governance of the resources of the deep seabed.  He noted the fact that the Authority had for the past few years taken all its decisions on substantive matters by consensus, as a result of the cooperative and harmonious spirit of its members.

The substantive work of the Authority reached an important milestone when Regulations for Prospecting and Exploration for Polymetallic Nodules were adopted in 2000.  Adoption of those regulations had enabled the Authority to issue to the seven former registered pioneer investors fifteen year contracts for exploration, thus bringing the pioneer investors within the single and definitive regime established by the Convention and its Implementation Agreement.

In doing so, he said the Authority had taken the first tangible and highly significant step in the exercise of its unique responsibility under the Convention to administer the deep seabed area and its resources for the benefit of mankind.  The Authority was currently engaged in developing further regulations that would deal with the prospecting and exploration of the polymetallic sulphides found on sea ridges and ferromanganese or cobalt crusts deposited on seamounts.

He said it was starkly evident from the Authority’s limited experience in administering the resources of the deep seabed that man’s knowledge of the ocean environment was at a very rudimentary stage.  There was an urgent need to enhance efforts in the research and exploration of the oceans.  He recalled a proposal he had made during the last session of the United Nations General Assembly that it should adopt a declaration in support of ocean research and exploration.

Without adequate scientific research, he said the management of the oceans, whether in the international area or in the coastal area, would not be based on sound scientific knowledge.  It was a difficulty that would continue to confront the international community in its efforts to sustainably manage the ocean environment.  For that reason, the Authority had embarked on a series of scientific and technical workshops on the resources of the deep seabed and the marine environment.

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said the International Seabed Authority had made an indelible mark on the way affairs were conducted with respect to resources of the world’s oceans.  In so doing, it had created the bedrock for cooperation between the developed and developing States and a nexus between the countries of the industrialized North and those of the developing South.

During the past ten years that the Authority had called Jamaica home, the Jamaican Government had done all it could to ensure that it settled into its new home easily and comfortably, he said.  The signing of the Headquarters Agreement in 1999 and the completion of the Supplementary Agreement, slated to be presented to the current ordinary session of the Assembly, was a strong signal of the Government’s long-term commitment and dedication, the Prime Minister added.

Since the entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1994, Jamaica had pursued a maritime policy concordant with those new international regulations.  The country now had in place a National Council on Ocean and Coastal Zone Management which had finalized a policy that had been approved by Parliament.  The establishment of the Maritime Authority of Jamaica was another link in the country’s maritime strategy, geared towards effectively regulating and developing the marine activities of the island.  Jamaica was committed to preserving the “common heritage” and would continue to play its part in any capacity necessary to achieve that end, he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a message read on his behalf by Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Ralph Zacklin, said the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea was a constitution for the world’s oceans, and as such was a milestone for the rule of law and the United Nations.

Since its adoption in 1982 and its entry into force in 1994, he said the Convention had provided both unique legal legitimacy and a solid practical framework for guiding state behaviour in the world’s oceans, managing the diverse challenges associated with ocean space and its uses, and settling the disputes that inevitably arose.  The International Seabed Authority had played a key role in those efforts, he said.

As one of the three important institutions established by the Convention, along with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, he said the Authority was the only institution through which states Parties organize and control activities -- particularly, the exploration and exploitation of mineral resources -- in the area beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.  Those resources were, under the Convention, the “common heritage of mankind”, and the Authority had strived to ensure that they benefited all people.  The Authority had also focused on environmental protection and conservation.

The Secretary-General paid tribute to the Authority’s first and current Secretary-General, Satya N. Nandan, “a distinguished international lawyer” whose “contribution to the codification and development of the modern law of the sea” he said, was significant and outstanding.  It was Mr. Nandan who initiated the dialogue that overcame problems that had hindered the participation of industrialized countries in the Convention, Secretary-General Annan added.

Noting that ocean affairs continued to be a critical part of the world’s quest to achieve sustainable development, he also congratulated the International Seabed Authority for its diligent and inspiring work over the past decade, and for showing that multilateral approaches to global challenges could be effective, equitable and enduring.

Judge L. DOLLIVER M. NELSON, President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, said the Tribunal was composed of 21 members representing the principal legal systems of the world.  The application of the principle of equitable geographical distribution had resulted in the Tribunal having proportionally more judges from developing countries than was the case with the International Court of Justice, he said.

The Tribunal had a seemingly wide jurisdiction over all disputes concerning the interpretation and application of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.  It also had jurisdiction over any dispute concerning the interpretation and application of an international agreement related to the purposes of the Convention which was submitted to it.  He referred to the Seabed Disputes Chamber which was created within the Tribunal to deal with disputes arising from activities in the international seabed area.  It also had jurisdiction over disputes between states Parties concerning the interpretation and application of Part XI of the Convention and the relevant annexes.  The Tribunal’s jurisdiction also included disputes between a State Party and the Authority.  He said the Tribunal continued to seek the moral and material support of the international community as a whole for the successful achievement of the objectives underlying its establishment.

Judge JOSE LUIS JESUS of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and Chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the International Seabed Authority and for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, said he was very much pleased that the work done by the Commission on the implementation of the pioneer regime had been a solid basis for the substantive work so far undertaken by the Authority.  Its approval of plans of work for exploration and the respective contracts for the seven registered pioneer investors were significant achievements.

In a way, the Authority was the standard-bearer of an international seabed negotiating agenda that started almost forty years ago with the preparations of the Law of the Sea Conference.  From those days to the Preparatory Commission and to the Authority, a great deal of effort had been made by generations of negotiators from all over the world to establish and create the conditions that might make it possible, one day, for the international seabed mineral resources to be exploited for the benefit of all nations.

The messages of TOMMY KOH of Singapore, President of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (1981-82), and J.S.WARIOBA, a former Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania and first Chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the International Seabed Authority and for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, were read to the session by NII Allotey Odunton, Deputy Secretary-General of the Authority.

In his message, Mr. Koh commended the International Seabed Authority for its professional and quiet approach to building its base of information and crafting its rules and regulations as well as its inclusiveness in consulting with legal and technical experts all over the world.  As a result, he said the Authority had succeeded in building trust and respect among all the parties and professions.

He paid tribute to the Authority’s Secretary-General for his leadership role in negotiating the 1994 compromise on Part XI of the Convention relating to seabed mining, and in the forging of agreements on two of the issues which the Convention failed to resolve, namely, highly migratory species of fish, and straddling fish stocks.  His invaluable role in resolving disputes, forging consensus and in crafting texts, had not been sufficiently recognized.  Mr. Koh said he believed that one of the secrets for the success of the Authority was its Secretary-General and his unique style of quiet, professional and consensus-building diplomacy.

Mr. Warioba, a former Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, in his message, said that despite the weaknesses that existed in the Convention, it was truly a universal instrument.  The establishment of the exclusive economic zone had averted serious conflicts among States and ushered in a regime that encouraged cooperation in the administration and management of its uses and resources.  There was no denying the fact that the Convention had put a stop to the colonization of the seabed beyond national jurisdiction and established global management and administration under the Authority.

Statements by regional groups

The chairmen of the five regional groups made statements to mark the occasion.  Sandile Nogxina (South Africa) spoke of Africa’s pride in having been “one of the midwives in the birth” of the Authority.  He said that those instrumental in the drafting of the “Constitution for the Oceans” (the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) had bequeathed to posterity a legal framework for the governance of the deep seabed and its resources which had been declared the common heritage of mankind, and from which all mankind must benefit.  He stressed the need for the Authority to collaborate with the international scientific community to increase its knowledge of the deep ocean environment in order to ensure its effective protection.

Jung Hai-ung (Republic of Korea), speaking on behalf of the Asian group, cited several reasons for that region’s particular interest in the development of the Authority:  it comprised both developed and developing nations; the region covered the Indian and Pacific Oceans where most of the cobalt-rich crusts are found; and finally, several pioneer investors were based in that region.  While commercial exploitation of seabed minerals might not begin for a number of years, it was to the Authority’s credit that it was well prepared to govern such seabed activities.  “Such good institutional preparedness has been rare in the history of international society”, he said.

Echoing the U.N. Secretary-General’s description of the Convention on the Law of the Sea as “ambitious” and “comprehensive”, Olav Myklebust (Norway), speaking on behalf of the Western European and Others Group, said it was even more satisfying to witness the success of the ambitious project, while deliberations on remaining issues of implementation continued.  “We are confident that the Authority will continue to prove itself more than capable of fulfilling its important mandate”, he concluded.

The statement on behalf of the Eastern European Group was read by the group’s chairman, Antonin Parizek

(Czech Republic), who outlined some of the research and exploration activities undertaken over the past ten years by the Interoceanmetal Joint Organization (IOM) – a consortium formed by Bulgaria, Cuba, Czech Republic, Poland, Russian Federation and Slovakia.  He highlighted the active participation of representatives of the Eastern European group in the work of both the decision-making as well as technical bodies of the Authority.

Cézar de Souza Lima Amaral (Brazil) said the Latin American and Caribbean States Group were proud to have the headquarters of the Authority established in the region.  The choice of Jamaica, a developing country, as host revealed one of the pillars of the organization which was reconciliation of different interests within a framework of a shared interest.  That was the idea of the sea as a common heritage of mankind.  As the Authority became more sensitive to the concerns of the international community, he said it would be prepared to contribute to the increasingly important debate on the harvesting of genetic resources from the international seabed area and the protection of biodiversity on the high seas.

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