BRAZIL SUBMITS INFORMATION TO COMMISSION REGARDING OUTER LIMITS OF ITS EXTENDED CONTINENTAL SHELF

Brazil submits information to commission regarding

outer limits of its extended continental shelf

NEW YORK, 26 May (UN Office of Legal Affairs) -- Brazil made its submission of data and other information to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) on Monday, 17 May, making it the second coastal State to submit such information to the Commission.  The submission was made through the Secretary-General to the Commission pursuant to article 76, paragraph 8, of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.  The information and data given to the Commission includes, inter alia, a list of geographical coordinates of points proposed for the outer limits of the continental shelf, as well as illustrative maps depicting those outer limits.

On 20 December 2001, the first submission was received by the Commission.  It was made by the Russian Federation regarding its continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean, the Barents and BeringSeas, and the Sea of Okhotsk.

Article 4 of Annex II to the Convention stipulates that a coastal State intending to establish the outer limits of its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles shall submit those particulars as soon as possible, but in any case within ten years of the entry into force of the Convention for that State. As the Convention came into force for Brazil on 16 November 1994, the submission of Brazil has been made to the Commission well within the ten-year time limit.

Regarding the ten year time limit for submissions to the Commission, it should be noted that the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea decided in 2001 that, for those States for which the Convention entered into force before 13 May 1999, the date of 13 May 1999 shall be taken as the starting date of the 10-year period from the entry into force of the Convention for each State to make a submission on the outer limits of the extended continental shelf.

In accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Commission, the information regarding the submission of Brazil is being circulated to all States Members of the United Nations, including States Parties to the Convention, in order to make public the proposed outer limits of the continental shelf pursuant to the submission.

The consideration of the submission made by the Russian Federation shall be included in the provisional agenda of the fourteenth session of the Commission to be held in New York from 30 August to 3 September 2004.  Upon completion of its task, the Commission shall make recommendations to the submitting State in accordance with article 76 of the Convention.

The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf was established following the entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.  Its purpose is to facilitate the implementation of its provisions in respect of the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast.  Article 76 provides the rules by which coastal States may establish those outer limits, and coastal States intending to establish them are required to submit the relevant data and information to the Commission within ten years of the entry into force of the Convention for that State.

The tasks of the Commission are twofold:

a) to examine the submission and make recommendations to the coastal State -- the limits of the shelf established by the coastal State on the basis of these recommendations are final and binding; and

b) to provide scientific and technical advice, if requested by the coastal State concerned during the preparation of that submission.

The Commission’s recommendations and actions are without prejudice to the delimitation of boundaries between States with opposite or adjacent coasts.  It is estimated that between 30 and 60 States may possibly meet the requirements to take advantage of those provisions.  The actual number will only become apparent as the Commission examines the submissions of coastal States, and as disputed frontiers are settled between opposite and adjacent States.

The continental shelf is defined in the Convention as the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas which, because of its geological characteristics, is considered as the natural prolongation of the continental or land mass beneath the oceans or seas to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.  The continental margin consists of the shelf, the slope and the rise.  It does not include the deep ocean floor with its oceanic ridges or the subsoil thereof.  The Convention gives coastal States sovereign rights to explore and exploit such resources, which have been estimated as being extremely valuable.

Under specific circumstances, and depending on scientific criteria contained in article 76 of the Convention, States may extend their sovereign rights over the resources of the shelf in areas beyond 200 nautical miles.  The determination that these criteria have been met involves the consideration of complex technical and scientific material and data submitted by the coastal State.  Some of the criteria which must be determined to set the outer limits of the extended continental shelf are, the location of the foot of the slope of the continental margin, the 2,500 metre isobath, the type of submarine ridges, and the thickness of the sediment lying on the ocean floor.

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 to be utilized for the benefit of all mankind.  The General Assembly, and later the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, have declared that the resources of the deep seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction -- for example, beyond the limits of a State’s continental shelf -- are the common heritage of mankind, to be managed jointly by all States through the International Seabed Authority, a body also established by the Convention.

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