Round-Up Release

Commission on Limits of Continental Shelf Concludes Twenty-Fifth Session

NEW YORK, 4 May (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) — Pursuant to the decision taken at its twenty-third and twenty-fourth sessions and on the basis of General Assembly resolution 64/71 of 4 December 2009, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf held its twenty-fifth session at United Nations Headquarters from 15 March to 23 April 2010.  Apart from the work carried out in plenary meetings, the Commission also proceeded with a technical examination of submissions made by coastal States in accordance with article 76 of the 1982 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 its twenty-fifth session, the Commission received presentations of 10 submissions from the following States: France in respect of the French Antilles and the Kerguelen Islands; Norway in respect of Bouvetøya and Dronning Maud Land; the Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in respect of the Ontong Java Plateau; Portugal; the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland “in respect of the Falkland Islands and of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands”; ^{[1], [2]} Tonga; Spain in respect of the area of Galicia; Trinidad and Tobago; Namibia; and Cuba.  (For the list of presentations of submissions made at the twenty-fourth session, see Press Release SEA/1923 of 15 September 2009)

The decisions of the Commission in relation to the submissions presented to it are reflected in the statement of the Commission Chairman, which will be issued as document CLCS/66.

The Commission also continued the examination of the submissions made by Barbados; the United Kingdom, in respect of Ascension Island; Indonesia, in respect of North-West of Sumatra Island; and Japan.  The subcommissions, which had been established at previous sessions to examine those submissions, continued the examination of the submissions and reported to the Commission on the work that they had carried out.  In particular, the subcommissions established to consider the submission made, respectively, by Barbados and by the United Kingdom, in respect of Ascension Island, submitted their recommendations to the Commission.  Following a thorough consideration of the recommendations prepared by the two subcommissions and of the presentations about matters related to each submission delivered at the plenary of the twenty-fifth session by the respective submitting States, the Commission adopted, with amendments, the recommendations in regard of each submission by consensus.

The Commission established two new subcommissions to consider the joint submission made by Mauritius and Seychelles in respect of the Mascarene Plateau, and the submission made by Suriname.

The Commission members were was invited to attend a meeting of the Informal Working Group established by the nineteenth Meeting of States Parties to consider the issue of the workload of the Commission.  At the meeting, held on 14 April 2010, during the plenary part of the twenty-fifth session, the Commission delivered a presentation on its workload.  (The presentation is available online at http://www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/clcs_workload.htm)

The twenty-sixth session of the Commission will be held from 2 August to 3 September 2010, on the understanding that the period from 16 to 27 August would be for plenary meetings and that the periods from 2 to 13 August and from 30 August to 3 September would be used for the technical examination of submissions at the GIS laboratories and other technical facilities of the Division.

For information on the history and purpose of the Commission, see earlier Press Release SEA/1818 of 30 March 2005.  For additional information, please visit the Commission’s website at www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm.

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[1] See the title of the executive summary of the present submission.

[2] Note by the Secretariat: a dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).

For information media • not an official record