In-Person Meetings Resume for States Parties to United Nations Convention on Law of Sea, 9 December
NEW YORK, 8 December (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) ― The thirtieth Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea will resume its work at an in‑person meeting on 9 December.
According to the draft organization of work proposed by the President of the Meeting in his letter of 7 December, the Meeting would address, in the following order: agenda item 7, titled “Organization of work”; agenda item 8, titled “Report of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to the Meeting of States Parties”; agenda item 9, titled “Information reported by the Secretary‑General of the International Seabed Authority”; agenda item 10, titled “Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf”; agenda item 11, titled “Consideration of administrative and budgetary matters of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea”; agenda item 12, titled “Report of the Credentials Committee”; agenda item 15, titled “Other matters”; and agenda item 14, titled “Reports of the Secretary‑General under article 319 for the information of States parties on issues of a general nature, relevant to States parties, which have arisen with respect to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea”.
It is recalled that, in light of the situation related to the COVID‑19 pandemic, the thirtieth Meeting of States Parties to the Convention, originally scheduled to be held at United Nations Headquarters from 15 to 19 June, was postponed and then proceeded in an incremental way. It was declared open on 6 July, in virtual manner, and proceeded with adopting certain decisions by the silence procedure, including the election of Burhan Gafoor, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Singapore to the United Nations, as President of the thirtieth Meeting.
From 24 to 26 August 2020, the thirtieth Meeting of States Parties convened a plenary in‑person 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 circulated a letter outlining the proposed timetable and modalities for the consideration of pending items on the agenda of the thirtieth Meeting (www.un.org/Depts/los/meeting_states_parties/documents/20201027NvLetEF.pdf) and on 30 October, the President informed delegations that, in the absence of any comments, the consideration of pending agenda items would proceed as outlined, on the understanding that no decisions would be formally adopted prior to the in‑person meeting. On 1 December, a further notification was circulated, informing that the in-person meetings of the thirtieth Meeting would be held on 9 December (MSP.N.2020.LOS.Add.3).
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.