Meeting of States Parties

to Law of Sea Convention

107^th Meeting (AM)

States parties to law of sea convention elect final expert

 

To serve on continental shelf commission

 

Twenty-One Experts, Elected to Five-Year Terms,

Will Examine Submissions by Coastal States to Delineate Continental Shelf

The States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea today elected Fernando Manuel Maia Pimentel of Portugal to serve in his personal capacity for a five-year term beginning Monday on the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, thereby completing the panel of 21 experts to examine submissions by coastal States for the delineation of the continental shelf. 

As the seventeenth meeting of States parties since the Treaty entered force in 1994 moved into its second day, experts in the fields of geology, geophysics, hydrography and/or geodesy, from Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom, competed for the remaining seat on the Commission, following four rounds of voting yesterday and three more rounds today from the Group of Western European and Other States.  Twenty seats were filled yesterday from the other regional groups following several secret ballots. (For details of yesterday’s votes, please see Press Release SEA/1884 of 14 June).

The purpose of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is to facilitate implementation of the Convention with respect to delineation of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.  Under the Convention, a coastal State establishes the outer limits of its continental shelf where it extends beyond 200 miles on the basis of the Commission’s recommendations, which are based on the data submitted by those States concerning their claims.

The voting pattern today was as follows:

In the fifth round of balloting, unrestricted, or open to all candidates, following three restricted rounds, in accordance with the rule of procedure, from the Western European and Other States Group:

Fernando Manuel Maia Pimentel of Portugal (85 votes)

Lindsay Murray Parson of the United Kingdom (45 votes)

Christian Jürgen Reichert of Germany (18 votes)

Sixth round, unrestricted:

Mr. Pimental of Portugal (97 votes)

Ms. Parson of the United Kingdom (43 votes)

Mr. Reichert of Germany (8 votes)

Following the sixth round of unrestricted voting, Germany’s delegation informed the Meeting that it would withdraw its candidate for the next round of balloting in the hope that a candidate could be elected.

Seventh round, now with two candidates:

Mr. Pimental of Portugal (106 votes)

Ms. Parson of the United Kingdom (41 votes)

The composition of the Commission for the next term of office beginning on 16 June and ending on 15 June 2012 is as follows:

Alexandre Tagore Medeiros de Albuquerque of Brazil

Osvaldo Pedro Astiz of Argentina

Lawrence Folajimi Awosika of Nigeria

Harald Brekke of Norway

Galo Carrera Hurtado of Mexico

Francis L. Charles of Trinidad and Tobago

Peter F. Croker of Ireland

Indurlall Fagoonee of Mauritius

Mihai Silviu German of Romania

Abu Bakar Jaafar of Malaysia

George Jaoshvili of Georgia

Emmanuel Kalngui of Cameroon

Yuri Borisovitch Kazmin of Russian Federation

Lu Wenzheng of China

Fernando Manuel Maia Pimentel of Portugal

Isaac Owusu Oduro of Ghana

Park Yong-ahn of Republic of Korea

Sivaramakrishnan Rajan of India

Michael Anselme Marc Rosette of Seychelles

Philip Alexander Symonds of Australia

Kensaku Tamaki of Japan

The seventeenth meeting of States parties will meet again in plenary at 10 a.m. on Monday, 18 June, to continue its work.

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For information media • not an official record