Meeting of States Parties

to Law of Sea Convention

123^rd & 124^th Meetings (AM & PM)

LAW OF SEA CONVENTION PARTIES TO EXHIBIT FLEXIBILITY ABOUT DEADLINES FOR REQUESTS

TO DELINEATE CONTINENTAL SHELVES BEYOND 200 NAUTICAL MILES, AS MEETING CONCLUDES

Budget Agreed for International Law of Sea Tribunal; Consensus Elusive

On Allocation of Seats for Tribunal, Commission on Limits of Continental Shelf

States parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Friday evening decided on a method of introducing flexibility into the deadline for countries’ submissions for delineating the outer limit of their continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, as they concluded their eighteenth Meeting.

They also approved the budget of the International Tribunal for the law of the Sea, but decided to delay resolution of the still-contentious issue of the reallocation of seats for geographical groups on the Tribunal and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

During the course of the meeting, representatives of developing countries said the lack of financial and technical resources was making it difficult for them to meet the required deadline of May 2009 for their submissions on the outer limits of their continental shelves.  In resolving that matter, States parties decided that countries need not complete their full submissions by the May 2009 deadline to keep within the requirements of the Convention, but could transmit instead “preliminary information indicative of the outer limits of the continental shelf”, along with a description of the status of preparations and intended date of making a full submission.

In their decision, the States parties also requested that relevant data and expertise be made more accessible to coastal States, and encouraged those States to take advantage of all such aids, as well as any other assistance available, in preparing their submissions.  They also encouraged States parties to continue contributing to the trust funds that supported those activities and helped fund the participation of developing States in the meetings of the Commission.

Regarding the reallocation of seats in the Commission and the Tribunal, the States parties failed to reach consensus on a joint Asian-African proposal, which, its sponsors maintained, properly reflected the increase in States parties from those regions.  Instead, the parties decided to exhaust all efforts to resolve the issue by the commencement of next year’s, Meeting of States Parties, the nineteenth, at which time it would adopt a decision on the basis of, among other things, the proposal, which is contained in document SPLOS/L.56.

Explaining his position after that action, Spain’s representative, speaking on behalf of the Western European and Other States Group (WEOG), said that the Group’s agreement to join consensus on that decision was without prejudice to its legal position regarding the competence of the Meeting of States Parties to decide upon the allocation of seats for the two bodies and regarding the requirement of consensus for that purpose.  He emphasized that the decision might also be made on the basis of other proposals, apart from the one made by the African and Asian groups, and suggested that a mechanism to facilitate discussions in the upcoming months could prove useful.

Often known as the “constitution of the oceans”, the Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted on 10 December 1982 and entered into force on 16 November 1994, and covers all aspects of ocean space and maritime issues, from navigational rights, maritime limits and marine scientific research to the management of resources, protection of the marine environment and settlement of disputes.  In addition to the Tribunal and the Continental Shelf Commission, the Convention also established the International Seabed Authority pertaining to issues of the ocean floor, including mining and preservation.

Before adopting the Tribunal’s budget early Friday, Japan’s representative said that he appreciated the reduction in that body’s budget, and hoped, as a major contributor, that such efficiency would continue.

Also Friday morning, Douglas Stevenson, Director of the Centre for Seafarers’ Rights of the Seamen’s Institute of New York and New Jersey, warned of a crisis in recruiting and retaining competent seamen for the world’s 30,000 merchant vessels.  The reasons for the crisis were multiple, but he said seafarers were often unfairly prosecuted and should be subjected to the same criminal standards as those in other occupations.

He also called for ratification of the Seafarers’ Identity Document Convention to alleviate the perception of mariners as security risks; action to stop piracy; and ratification of the Maritime Labour Convention, adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO), which, he said, could return seafaring to its place as an attractive and respected career choice.

In addition, Aurora Mateos of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) welcomed India’s offer, extended during the meeting on 18 June, for providing tsunami warning information under the principles of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System.  She made it clear, however, that while her organization would continue to support Member States in meeting some obligations, neither UNESCO nor its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission would be in a position to finance or extend any assistance to collect fresh geological or geophysical data for any location.

The States parties also decided it would replace an elected member of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf who had not yet presented himself or herself at the meetings, if that member did not appear by a certain time.

In the afternoon, the representative of Indonesia invited the States parties to participate in the World Ocean Conference, to be held in Manado, North Sulawesi, from 11 to 15 May 2009.  He said that the purpose of the conference was to increase awareness of the impact of climate change on the oceans and to mobilize responses from the international community to mitigate the worst effects such impacts could have on the earth as a whole.

Closing the meeting Friday evening, meeting President Yuriy Sergeyev of Ukraine thanked all involved for their cooperation and hard work, and expressed satisfaction at having presided over a meeting that could claim full participation of all States parties.  That had demonstrated the high level of interest in the bodies established by the Convention.  He also gave a final reminder of the need to ensure that assessed contributions to the Tribunal and the Seabed Authority were paid in full in a timely fashion.

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For information media • not an official record