Background Release

Commission on Limits of Continental Shelf, Meeting at Headquarters

 

1 August – 9 September, Will Hold Plenary 15 – 26 August

 

NEW YORK, 15 August (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) — Pursuant to General Assembly resolution 65/37 A, of 7 December 2010, and the decision of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf at its twenty-seventh session, the twenty-eighth session of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will be held in New York from 1 August to 9 September.  The plenary part of the twenty-eighth session will be held from 15 to 26 August. The periods from 1 to 12 August and from 29 August to 9 September are allocated for the technical examination of submissions at the Geographic Information System laboratories and other technical facilities of the Division.

The Commission, through its respective subcommissions, will continue the examination of data and other materials submitted by the following coastal States parties to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea concerning the outer limits of their continental shelf in areas where those limits extend beyond 200 nautical miles:  France (in respect of the areas of the French Antilles and the Kerguelen Islands); Japan; Philippines (in respect of the Benham Rise region); and Uruguay.

The Commission will also receive formal presentations of the submissions made by Bangladesh and Madagascar.  Upon the request of the respective submitting States, presentations on the remaining submissions that have been included on the provisional agenda for the session (notably, France in respect of La Réunion Island and Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands; Iceland in the Ægir Basin area and in the Western and Southern parts of Reykjanes Ridge; Pakistan;and Sri Lanka) have been deferred to a later session.

As required under the Rules of Procedure of the Commission, the executive summaries of all new submissions, including all charts and coordinates, have been made public by the Secretary‑General through continental shelf notifications circulated to Member States of the United Nations, including the States parties to the Convention.  The executive summaries are available on the Division’s website at http://www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/clcs_home.htm.

The summaries of all recommendations adopted by the Commission are also available on the above-referenced website.

A special Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was held on 11 August to fill the vacancy that had occurred in the Commission following the demise of Kensaku Tamaki ( Japan) on 5 April.  Tetsuro Urabe ( Japan) was elected for the remainder of his predecessor’s term of five years, which ends on 15 June 2012.  He will join the Commission on the first day of the plenary session, 15 August.

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 website of the Division at www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm.

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For information media • not an official record