States Parties to United Nations Convention on Law of Sea Resume Thirtieth Meeting

NEW YORK, 2 November (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) — In light of the situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the thirtieth Meeting of States Parties to the Convention, which was originally scheduled to be held at United Nations Headquarters from 15 to 19 June, was postponed.  It was declared open on 6 July and proceeded with adopting its decisions of procedural nature by the silence procedure.  Among other things, it elected Burhan Gafoor, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Singapore to the United Nations, as President of the thirtieth Meeting.  From 24 to 26 August, the thirtieth Meeting of States Parties convened a plenary meeting for the purpose of electing seven members of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.  At that time, the Meeting also agreed that the consideration of the remaining items on the agenda would be taken up at a later stage, bearing in mind that agenda item 11(c), entitled “Draft budget proposals of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for the budget period 2021-2022”, would need to be considered and the decisions related to the 2021-2022 budget adopted before the end of the year.

On 27 October, the President of the thirtieth Meeting of States Parties circulated a letter and annexed document outlining the proposed timetable and modalities of work for the consideration of pending items on the agenda of the thirtieth Meeting, and inviting comments (www.un.org/Depts/los/meeting_states_parties/documents/20201027NvLetEF.pdf).

On 30 October, the President of the thirtieth Meeting circulated another letter informing that, in the absence of any comments from States parties, the consideration of pending agenda items would proceed as outlined in the annex to his letter dated 27 October, on the understanding that no decisions would be formally adopted prior to the in-person plenary meeting, to be held at a date that is yet to be determined.

A further notification regarding the date of the plenary meeting will be circulated in due course.

The agenda of the thirtieth Meeting of States Parties is contained in document SPLOS/30/1.

For further information on the thirtieth Meeting of States Parties, including its documents, please see the website of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs:  www.un.org/Depts/los/meeting_states_parties/thirtiethmeetingstatesparties.htm.