Special Meeting of States Parties

to Law of Sea Convention

1^st & 2^nd Meetings (AM)

ZHIGUO GAO OF CHINA ELECTED JUDGE OF INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL IN SPECIAL MEETING

OF STATES PARTIES TO CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF THE SEA

 

Zhiguo Gao of China was elected Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea today by a Special Meeting of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The holder of a doctorate in the Science of Law, and a member of the Chinese Bar Association, 52-year-old Zhiguo Gao is a former Deputy to the Tenth National People’s Congress of China and the only candidate nominated.  He was elected in one round of secret balloting, garnering 136 votes and thus exceeding the necessary two-thirds majority (91) of the 136 States parties that voted.  (More biographical information is available in document SPLOS/167.)

The Special Meeting had been convened in order to fill a vacancy in the Tribunal following the resignation of Judge Guangjian Xu, also of China, who resigned last 15 August.  As he had been elected for a term of nine years, which would have ended on 30 September 2011, Mr. Zhiguo Gao was elected to fill the remainder of his term.  (More background information on the procedures is contained in documents SPLOS/165 and 166.)

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order for the world's oceans and seas, establishing rules governing all uses of oceans and their resources.  It enshrines the notion that all problems of ocean space are closely inter-related and should be addressed as a whole.  The Convention currently consists of 155 States parties.  (For more information, visit www.un.org/Depts/los.)

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea was established in Hamburg, Germany, when the Convention entered into force on 16 November 1994.  Consisting of 21 judges, each elected for a nine-year term, the Tribunal deals with disputes arising from the interpretation and application of the Convention.  (For more information, visit www.itlos.org.)

Opening today’s Special Meeting, its President, Rosemary Banks ( New Zealand), called for one minute of silent prayer or meditation.  The Meeting then adopted its provisional agenda, as contained in document SPLOS/L.53, and decided to retain the composition of its Bureau as elected by the Seventeenth Meeting, as well as the composition of its Credentials Committee, as appointed on that occasion.  The Meeting’s Vice-Presidents were, therefore, the representatives of Argentina, Malaysia, South Africa and Ukraine.

The Credentials Committee consisted of the representatives of Algeria, Brazil, Germany, Guatemala, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines and Sri Lanka.  Chairperson Ridas Petkus ( Lithuania) presented the Committee’s report (document SPLOS/168), which the Meeting approved via a unanimously adopted draft resolution contained in that report.

Following the election of Zhiguo Gao, the representative of China joined the Meeting’s President in congratulating him, thanking all delegations present for their support and calling on them to work together to enable the International Tribunal to carry out its work successfully.

A representative of the Secretariat announced that briefings had been organized for 20 and 21 February at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., respectively, in the DC2 building regarding a change in procedures for the trust fund established to facilitate the preparation of submissions to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf for developing States, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States.  The new procedure was aimed at facilitating their access to that trust fund.

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For information media • not an official record