Commission on Limits of Continental Shelf Concludes Thirty-Fifth Session

 

NEW YORK, 5 September (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) ― The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf held its thirty-fifth session at United Nations Headquarters from 21 July to 5 September.  Besides the two weeks of plenary meetings (4 to 8 August and 2 to 5 September), the Commission, working through its subcommissions, devoted five weeks to the technical examination of submissions at the Geographic Information Systems laboratories and other technical facilities of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea.

On 5 September, the Commission considered and adopted, by consensus, the recommendations in respect of the submission of Ghana.

Upon its request, Kenya made a presentation of its submission to the Commission, for the benefit of the newly elected members of the Commission.  Kenya had made its submission on 6 May 2009 and presented it for the first time on 3 September 2009, during the twenty-fourth session of the Commission.

Nine previously established subcommissions continued their work during the thirty-fifth session and met with the respective delegations. These were the Subcommissions established for consideration of the submissions made by Uruguay, the Cook Islands concerning the Manihiki Plateau, Argentina, Pakistan, Norway in respect of Bouvetøya and Dronning Maud Land, South Africa in respect of the mainland of the territory of the Republic of South Africa, the joint submission by the Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands concerning the Ontong Java Plateau, the joint submission by France and South Africa in the area of the Crozet Archipelago and the Prince Edward Islands, and the submission by Mauritius in the region of Rodrigues Island.

The Commission re-elected Lawrence Folajimi Awosika as Chair and Galo Carrera, Ivan F. Glumov, Yong Ahn Park and Walter Roest as Vice-Chairs for the next two-and-a-half-year term by acclamation.  Their terms of office would commence in December 2014 and expire on 15 June 2017.

The Commission decided that it would meet for six weeks during the thirty-sixth session, which will be held from 20 October to 28 November this year, with no plenary meetings.

The Commission also decided to hold, during 2015, three sessions of seven weeks each, including plenary meetings, for a total of 21 weeks of meetings of the Commission and its subcommissions.  It also decided that four of those 21 weeks would be devoted to plenary meetings.  This decision was taken on the understanding that it could be revisited during the Commission’s thirty-seventh session in the light of the progress in the subcommissions and other developments in relation to both the workload of the Commission and the conditions of service its members.

(a)  The thirty-seventh session would be held from 2 February to 20 March 2015.  The plenary parts of the session would be held, subject to the approval of the General Assembly, from 9 to 13 February and from 9 to 13 March 2015;

(b)  The thirty-eighth session would be held from 20 July to 4 September 2015.  The plenary parts of the session would be held, subject to the approval of the General Assembly, from 3 to 7 and from 24 to 28 August 2015;

(c)  The thirty-ninth session would be held from 12 October to 27 November 2015.

Details of the thirty-fifth session will be reflected in the statement by the Chairperson of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on the progress of its work in the Commission (document CLCS/85).

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

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For information media • not an official record