Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Headquarters, 13-17 June

NEW YORK, 20 June (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs) ― The thirty-second Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was held at Headquarters from 13 to 17 June.  The background press release can be found at:  www.un.org/press/en/2022/sea2141.doc.htm

The Meeting elected Vanessa Frazier (Malta) as President of the thirty-second Meeting of States Parties by acclamation.  Kennedy Godfrey Gastron (United Republic of Tanzania), Natalia Jiménez Algería (Mexico), Nathaniel Khng (Singapore) and Augustina Siman (Moldova) were elected as Vice-Presidents by acclamation.

The Meeting took note of the annual report of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for 2021, as well as information reported by the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority and the Chairperson of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, on the activities of these bodies since the thirty-first Meeting of States Parties in 2021.

The Meeting approved the budget of the Tribunal for the period 2023–2024 in the amount of €23,443,900.  In its consideration of the Tribunal’s administrative and budgetary matters, the Meeting took note with satisfaction of the report of the external auditor for the financial period 2021 and the report on budgetary matters for the financial period 2021.  The Meeting also decided to extend Indonesia and Canada as member and alternate member, respectively, of the Tribunal’s staff pension committee for a three-year term of office, starting on 1 January 2023.

The Open-Ended Working Group for consideration of issues related to the conditions of service of members of the Commission continued its work.  As the Working Group required more time to consider funding proposals, the Meeting requested that the body to continue to work intersessionally and report to the thirty-third Meeting of States Parties.

The Meeting elected 20 members of the Commission for a five-year term, starting on 16 June 2023 to 15 June 2028, namely:  Adnan Rashid Nasser Al Azri (Oman); Lawrence Asangongo Apaalse (Ghana); Harald Brekke (Norway); Efren Perez Carandang (Philippines); Mateusz Damrat (Poland); Aldino Manuel Dos Santos de Campos (Portugal); Antonio Fernando Garcez Faria (Brazil); Ivan F. Glumov (Russian Federation); Helena Inniss (Trinidad and Tobago); Miloud Loukili (Morocco); Estevão Stefane Mahanjane (Mozambique); Domingos de Carvalho Viana Moreira (Angola); David Cole Mosher (Canada); Simon Njuguna (Kenya); Tolojanahary Randriamiarantsoa (Madagascar); Rajan Sivaramakrishnan (India); Yong Tang (China); Ariel Hernán Troisi (Argentina); Toshitsugu Yamazaki (Japan); and Gonzalo Alejandro Yáñez Carrizo (Chile).

One of the seats on the Commission was not filled, due to the lack of candidate nominations by the Eastern European Group of States.  The Convention provides that not less than three members shall be elected from each geographical region.  Following decisions made during several previous years, the Meeting granted more time to the Group of Eastern European States to identify a candidate or candidates.  Also, the Meeting deferred to the thirty-third Meeting a draft decision on the pattern of election for Commission members and on the commencement of their term of office until after deliberations on this matter.

Under article 319 of the Convention, the Meeting considered the report of the Secretary-General 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 (see documents A/76/311, A/76/311.Add.1 and A/77/68).  In their interventions, delegations expressed appreciation for the report and the important work of the three bodies established under the Convention.

Furthermore, delegations referred to the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention this year, reaffirming that the Convention constitutes the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out and reflects a great success of multilateralism.  They addressed a wide range of issues, including the role of the Convention in maintaining international peace and security, reinforcing friendly relations among States and ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans and marine resources.

They also focused on the achievement of gender equality in all ocean-related sectors; marine scientific research; the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects, in particular the launch of the second World Ocean Assessment; protection of the marine environment, including the issue of plastic pollution and the decision of the United Nations Environmental Assembly to negotiate an international legally binding instrument by 2024 to end plastic pollution including in the marine environment.  Other issues addressed were the impacts of climate change on the ocean, including sea-level rise and ocean acidification; the blue economy; migration by sea; maritime security and safety, including piracy and other crimes at sea; illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; national and regional initiatives addressing challenges faced in maritime zones; and the need for capacity-building, transfer of marine technology and cross-sectoral cooperation and coordination.

Delegations also referred to the United Nations Ocean Conference, to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, from 27 June to 1 July 2022, as an important opportunity to accelerate efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 14 and prepare for the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument under the Convention on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, with a call for its finalization as soon as possible.  Delegations also welcomed the recent meeting of the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea, with a focus on “Ocean Observing”.

Delegations also highlighted the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health of the ocean and ocean-related processes and activities, noting that in responding to the pandemic, there were also opportunities to address other threats facing the oceans and ensure sustainable ocean-based economies.  Concerns were expressed over the heavy workload of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, delays in the consideration of submissions and the need to reach solutions on the conditions of work of Commission members.

Some delegations condemned the Russian Federation’s military actions in Ukraine and risks posed by the armed conflict, including with respect to navigational safety and pollution and degradation of the marine environment.  In response, the Russian Federation underscored that such statements represented a misuse of the Meeting, which was not an appropriate forum for dealing with issues of a bilateral, substantive and political nature.

In her closing statement, after recalling that the Meeting had already taken action to promote gender equality by revising the language of its Rules of Procedure to render them gender inclusive, the President encouraged States Parties to further promote gender equality through representation in the Bureau, as well as in the nomination of members for both the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.  She noted with regret that the number of women elected to the Commission had decreased from two to one.

A more detailed account of the proceedings of the thirty-second Meeting of States Parties will be included in the report of the Meeting, to be issued in due course as document SPLOS/32/15.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was adopted on 10 December 1982 and entered into force on 16 November 1994, 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.  This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention, which also provides the legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources, as recalled in paragraph 158 of The Future We Want outcome document of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

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