Round-Up of Session

COMMISSION ON LIMITS OF CONTINENTAL SHELF CONCLUDES Twenty-FIRST SESSION

NEW YORK, 21 April (United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) -- The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf held its twenty-first session at United Nations Headquarters from 17 March to 18 April, pursuant to the decision taken at its twentieth session (document CLCS/56, para. 60) and on the basis of General Assembly resolution 62/215 (para. 49).  During the session, apart from the work carried out in plenary meetings, the Commission also proceeded with the technical examination of submissions made by coastal States in accordance with article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea at the Geographic Information System (GIS) laboratories and other technical facilities of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs.

At the twenty-first session, the Commission dealt with the submission made by Mexico.  The submission by Mexico is the ninth to be received by the Commission.

The Mexican submission was presented at the plenary part by the delegation of Mexico, headed by Ambassador Joel Hernández Garcia, on 1 April.  The submission by Mexico was a partial submission regarding the so-called Western Polygon of the Gulf of Mexico.

After this presentation, the Commission established a subcommission to examine Mexico’s submission.  The subcommission is composed of the following members:  Osvaldo Pedro Astiz, Peter F. Croker, Yuri Borisovitch Kazmin, Fernando Manuel Maia Pimentel, Sivaramakrishnan Rajan, Michael Anselme Marc Rosette and Kensaku Tamaki.  The subcommission elected Kensaku Tamaki as Chairman, and Osvaldo Pedro Astiz and Fernando Manuel Maia Pimentel as Vice-Chairmen.

The Commission continued the examination of the submissions made by New Zealand, Norway and France, as well as the joint submission by France, Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  The subcommissions, which had been established at previous sessions to examine those submissions, reported to the Commission on the work that they had carried out intersessionally, and continued the examination of the submissions.

The subcommission established for consideration of the submission made by New Zealand completed its work, and presented its recommendations to the Commission.  The Commission decided to defer further consideration of the recommendations to the twenty-second session, in order to allow all members of the Commission to study in more detail the conclusions reached by the subcommission.

The Commission also had before it the recommendations prepared by the subcommission established for consideration of the submission by Australia, which had been presented at the nineteenth session.  The Commission decided to adopt the recommendations prepared by the subcommission.

During the course of the session, the Commission agreed to amendments to their rules of procedure, which will be issued as document CLCS/40/Rev.1.

Also during the session, Václav Mikulka, Director of the Division, provided the Commission members with an update concerning the activities carried out by the Division with regard to training courses for delineation of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles and for the preparation of a submission to the Commission.

The Commission confirmed that its twenty-second session would be held from 11 August to 12 September, on the understanding that the period from 18 to 29 August would be devoted to plenary meetings and that the periods from 11 to 15 August and from 2 to 12 September would be used for the technical examination of submissions at the GIS laboratories and other technical facilities of the Division.

The Commission noted with appreciation the high standard of secretariat services rendered to it, as well as the substantial upgrading of the facilities of the Division, which included the establishment of a third GIS laboratory, the acquisition of software packages and the introduction of advanced technical network solutions.

For information about the Commission, please visit the Commission’s website at www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/clcs_home.htm.

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For information media • not an official record