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SEA/2046

Maria Emilynda Jeddahlyn Pia Benosa of Philippines Wins 2017 Hamilton Amerasinghe Shirley Memorial Fellowship on Law of Sea

Acclaimed Initiative Aims to Advance Understanding, Implementation of Convention

NEW YORK, 6 March — (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) — Maria Emilynda Jeddahlyn Pia Benosa of the Philippines has been awarded the 2017 Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe Fellowship on the Law of the Sea.  Viviana Gutierrez Delgado was selected as an alternate in case Ms. Benosa is unable to accept the Fellowship.

The Fellowship is intended primarily to advance the proficiency and capability of Government officials, research fellows or academics from developing countries involved in the law of the sea or ocean affairs.  It has earned wide acclaim for its academic contribution to overall understanding and implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Miguel de Serpa Soares, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, made the award upon the recommendation of a high-level advisory panel.  The 2017 panel comprised representatives from the Permanent Missions of Colombia, Ireland, Hungary, Monaco and Sri Lanka.

The Fellowship was established in 1981 in honour of Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe, First President of the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea.  That Conference, 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 168 States parties.  Generally regarded as “the constitution of the oceans”, it sets out the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out and is of strategic importance as the basis for national, regional and global action and cooperation in the marine sector.

Part of the capacity-building programme of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, the Fellowship is also one initiative in the overall programme of the Office of Legal Affairs to teach, study, disseminate and ensure wider appreciation of international law.  Despite the programme’s clear benefits, as well as wide-spread recognition and appreciation, however, it was not possible to present a Fellowship in 2016 owing to a lack of funding.

The General Assembly has again this year, in its resolution 71/257, called on States, international financial institutions, donor agencies, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, as well as natural and juridical persons, to continue to make voluntary contributions towards the financing of the Fellowship to ensure that it is awarded every year.  In the past year, the Governments of Ireland, Monaco and Sri Lanka have made financial contributions to the Fellowship fund.

Previous Fellows have come from nearly all the world’s regions, hailing from Argentina, Barbados, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Samoa, Seychelles, Solomon Islands Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, United Republic of Tanzania, Viet Nam and the former Yugoslavia.  They have devoted their study and training period to various topics such as maritime boundary delimitation; methods for the determination of 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 participate in the Fellowship programme, all waiving their usual tuition fees in order to enable the Fellows to carry out their research/study at the following institution or university of their choice:  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, Netherlands; 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.

For further information, please contact the Division at e-mail:  doalos@un.org, or visit its website at www.un.org/depts/los.

For information media. Not an official record.