Round-up Release

Commission on Limits of Continental Shelf Concludes Thirtieth Session

 

NEW YORK, 31 August (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs) — The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf held its thirtieth session at United Nations Headquarters from 30 July to 24 August 2012.  The period from 13 August to 24 August 2012 was devoted to the technical examination of submissions at the Geographic Information Systems facilities of the Division*.

This was the first session of the Commission following the election of 20 members of the Commission at the twenty-second Meeting of States Parties to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, held from 4 to 11 June 2012.  At the request of the Group of Eastern European States during that Meeting, the election of the remaining, twenty-first member of the Commission was postponed in order to allow for additional nominations from that Group.  Another Meeting of States Parties to the Convention is to be held by the end of 2012 with a view to filling in that vacancy.

At the outset of its thirtieth session, the Commission elected its officers — Lawrence Folajimi Awosika as Chairperson, and Galo Carrera, George Jaoshvili, Yong Ahn Park and Walter R. Roest as Vice-Chairpersons.  All the officers were elected for a term of two and a half years.  The Commission also appointed members of its subsidiary bodies.

To advance the examination of submissions and in furtherance of the request by the twenty-first Meeting of States Parties (SPLOS/229, para. 1), the Commission took important decisions.  Notably, it decided to hold, in 2013, three sessions of seven weeks each (a total of 21 weeks of meetings).  Four of these 21 weeks would be devoted to plenary meetings, subject to General Assembly approval.  The thirty-first session will be held from 21 January to 8 March 2013 (with plenary parts to be held from 28 January to 1 February and from 25 February to 1 March 2013).  The thirty-second session will be held from 15 July to 30 August 2013 (plenary parts from 12 to 16 and from 26 to 30 August).  The thirty-third session will be held from 7 October to 22 November 2013, with no plans for plenary meetings.

The Commission also decided to establish four new Subcommissions for the submissions made by Argentina, Ghana, Iceland in the Ægir Basin area and in the Western and Southern parts of Reykjanes Ridge, and Denmark in the area North of the Faroe Islands and appointed their members.  Thus, together with the previously established Subcommissions, namely those examining submissions made by Uruguay and by the Cook Islands in respect of the Manihiki Plateau, there are now six Subcommissions actively considering submissions.  All Subcommissions held meetings during the thirtieth session.  The new ones elected their officers and initiated the examination of the submissions.  One of them already held its first meetings with the delegation of the submitting State.

During the plenary part of the thirtieth session, the United Republic of Tanzania made a presentation to the Commission on its recent submission transmitted in January 2012.  Upon its request, Argentina also made presentation of its submission to the Commission, for the benefit of the newly elected members of the Commission.  It is recalled that Argentina had made its submission in April 2009 and presented it for the first time on 26 August 2009, during the twenty-fourth session of the Commission**.

The details of the thirtieth session will be reflected in the statement of the Chairperson of the Commission on the progress of the Commission, which will be issued as document CLCS/76.

For additional information on the work of the Commission, see the website of the Division at www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm.

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*     See CLCS/74, para. 61.

**    See CLCS/64, paras. 72-77.

For information media • not an official record