Commission on Limits of Continental Shelf Concludes Forty-Fourth Session at Headquarters, 24 July-8 September
NEW YORK, 11 September (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) — The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf held its forty-fourth session at United Nations Headquarters from 24 July to 8 September 2017.
The Commission devoted five days of that session to plenary meetings (24 July, 28 to 30 August and 1 September) during which it conducted the induction activities of the members of the Commissions elected at the twenty-seventh Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (see Press Release SEA/2059) and received substantive reports from nine active subcommissions. The Commission decided that during the current five-year term of office it would continue to meet for a total of 21 weeks per year by holding three sessions of seven weeks each, and that no two sessions would be sequential. Four of those 21 weeks would be devoted to plenary meetings. Pending the approval of the following dates by the General Assembly, the Commission decided to convene its forty-sixth session from 29 January to 16 March 2018, with plenary parts meetings from 5 to 9 February and from 5 to 9 March 2018; its forty-seventh session from 23 July to 7 September 2018, with plenary parts meetings from 6 to 10 August and from 27 to 31 August 2018; and its forty-eighth session from 15 October to 30 November 2018, without plenary meetings. The Commission decided to defer further consideration of the submissions made by Norway in respect of Bouvetøya and Dronning Maud Land and by Seychelles in respect of the Northern Plateau Region to the forty-sixth session.
During the remainder of the session, the Commission, working through its subcommissions, continued 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, Office of Legal Affairs.
Nine active subcommissions held meetings during the forty-fourth session, namely, the subcommissions established for consideration of the submissions made by the Russian Federation in respect of the Arctic Ocean (partial revised submission); Brazil in respect of the Brazilian Southern Region (partial revised submission); France and South Africa, jointly, in respect of the area of the Crozet Archipelago and the Prince Edward Islands; Kenya; Nigeria; France in respect of La Réunion Island and Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands; Côte d'Ivoire; Sri Lanka and Portugal.
As required under the Rules of Procedure of the Commission, the executive summaries of all 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, as well as States parties to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The executive summaries are available on the Division’s website at www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/clcs_home.htm. The summaries of recommendations adopted by the Commission are also available on the above-referenced website.
Additional information about the forty-fourth session will be reflected in the Statement by the Chairperson of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on the progress of work in the Commission, which will be issued as document CLCS/100.
For additional information on the work of the Commission, see the website of the Division at www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm.