Indonesian Winner Begins Second Phase of Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe

 

Memorial Fellowship on Law of the Sea at United Nations Headquarters

 

NEW YORK, 13 January (Office of Legal Affairs) — Sri Asih Roza Nova of Indonesia has started the second phase of the Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe Memorial Fellowship on the Law of the Sea, at the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs.

She started the second, practical phase of the Fellowship programme and her research paper on 13 January and will complete it on 9 March.  During the first phase, she spent four months at the Centre for International Law of the National University of Singapore, where she conducted research on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing under the supervision of Professor Robert Beckman.

Ms. Roza Nova is the twenty-fourth recipient of the Fellowship, which is intended primarily to advance the proficiency and capability of Government officials, research fellows or academics from developing countries who are involved in the law of the sea or ocean affairs.  It has gained wide acclaim for its academic contribution to the overall understanding and implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The award was made by Patricia O’Brien, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, on the basis of a recommendation by a high-level advisory panel.  This year’s panel comprised the following: Jorge Argüello, Permanent Representative of Argentina; Isabelle Picco, Permanent Representative of Monaco (Chairperson); Mohammed Loulichki, Permanent Representative of Morocco; Wilfred I. Emvula, Permanent Representative of Namibia; Sanja Štiglic, Permanent Representative of Slovenia; Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, Permanent Representative of Spain; and Palitha T.B. Kohona, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka.

Prized for the academic opportunity and practical experience it provides to participants, the Fellowship involves a course of study at a participating institution and a period of practical training at the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea in the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs.

The Fellowship was established in 1981 in memory of Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe, first President of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which began its work in 1973, adopted the Convention in April 1982, opening it for signature in December the same year.   The Convention now has 162 parties, including the European Union, and is generally regarded as “the constitution of the oceans”, regulating international legal norms for all matters relating to the governance, uses and protection of the oceans and seas.

Part of the capacity-building programme of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, the Fellowship is also part of the overall Office of Legal Affairs programme of teaching, study, dissemination and wider appreciation of international law.  Despite its clear benefits and widespread recognition and appreciation, however, only one Fellowship could be awarded in a year due to lack of funds.

In its resolution 66/231, the General Assembly called again this year on Member States and interested organizations, foundations and individuals to continue to make voluntary contributions towards the financing of the Fellowship so as to ensure that it is awarded annually.  In the past year, the Governments of Argentina, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ireland, Finland, Monaco and Slovenia have made financial contributions to the Fellowship fund.  Also in the past, individual States have made special contributions to finance the award of special Fellowships at designated universities or institutions.

Previous Fellows have come from nearly all regions of the world, including Argentina, Barbados, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Samoa, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, United Republic of Tanzania, Viet Nam and countries of the former Yugoslavia.  They have devoted their study and training period to various topics, such as maritime delimitation; methods for determining the outer limits of the continental shelf; maritime transport of hazardous materials; marine scientific research; the marine environment; crimes at sea; settlement of disputes; and the legal regime of genetic resources in areas of the deep seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.

Seventeen world-renowned universities and institutes participating in the Fellowship programme all waive their usual tuition fees to allow the Fellows to carry out their research/study at the institution or university of their choice.  Participating institutions are the Centre for Oceans Law and Policy, University of Virginia, United States; Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada; Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland; Institute of International Studies, University of Chile, Santiago; Institute of Maritime Law, University of Southampton, United Kingdom; Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, United States; Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, Germany; Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea, University of Utrecht; Research Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; Rhodes Academy of Ocean Law and Policy, Greece; School of Law, University of Georgia, United States; School of Law, University of Miami, United States; School of Law, University of Washington, United States; William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii, United States; Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy, University of Delaware, United States; and the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore.

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For information media • not an official record