Background Release

Commission on Limits of Continental Shelf to Hold Thirty-first Session

 

at Headquarters, 21 January-8 March

 

NEW YORK, 18 January (United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea/Office of Legal Affairs) — The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will hold its thirty-first session from 21 January to 8 March 2013.  The plenary segments of the session will be held from 28 January to 1 February and from 25 February to 1 March, while the remainder of the time will be devoted to the technical examination of submissions at the Geographic Information Systems laboratories and other technical facilities of the Division.

The Commission’s remaining vacancy has now been filled following the election of Szymon Uścinowicz ( Poland) at the Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, held on 19 December 2012.

There are currently six subcommissions actively considering the submissions made by Uruguay, the Cook Islands concerning the Manihiki Plateau, Argentina, Ghana, Iceland in respect of the Ægir Basin area and Reykjanes Ridge, and Denmark in the area north of the Faroe Islands.

Additionally, during the plenary segments, the Commission will receive formal presentations in respect of a number of submissions.  As required under its rules of procedure, the Secretary-General has made public the executive summaries of all the submissions, including all charts and coordinates, through continental shelf notifications circulated to Member States of the United Nations, as well as States parties to the Convention.  The executive summaries are available on the Division’s website, www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/clcs_home.htm.  The summaries of 18 recommendations thus far adopted by the Commission are also available on the website.

For additional information on the Commission’s work, visit http://www.un.org/depts/los/index.htm.

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For information media • not an official record