States Parties to United Nations Convention on Law of Sea Conclude Thirty-Third Meeting at Headquarters, 12-15 June

NEW YORK, 19 June (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs) — The thirty-third Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was held at Headquarters from 12 to 15 June.  The background press release can be found at https://press.un.org/en/2023/sea2179.doc.htm.

The Meeting elected Cornel Feruţă (Romania) as President of the third-third Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, by acclamation.  James Waweru (Kenya), Azela Arumpac-Martre (Philippines), Wisnique Panier (Haiti) and Sérgio Carvalho (Portugal) 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 2022, as well as the 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-second Meeting of States Parties held in 2022.

The Co-Coordinators of the Open-Ended Working Group on the conditions of service of members of the Commission delivered a report on its work.  The Meeting took note of the report, requested that the Working Group continue its work intersessionally and report back to the thirty-fourth meeting of States Parties, and also requested that the Secretariat continue to support the Working Group.

On the membership of the Commission, the Meeting noted that one member-elect of the Commission had recently resigned and one of the seats in the Commission had remained vacant since 2015, due to a lack of nominations of candidates from the Eastern European Group of States. The Meeting also took note that the Secretariat will circulate a call for nominations concerning the two vacant seats and that the Meeting would be resumed, at a date to be determined, to conduct a by-election.  On the pattern for elections of the members of the Commission, the Meeting decided that the next election of 21 members would take place at the Meeting of States Parties to be held in 2027 and that the corresponding term of office would commence on 16 June 2028.  This pattern of elections would be maintained for future elections of the Commission.

The Meeting authorized the Tribunal to use part of the cash surplus from the 2021-2022 budget to finance an additional appropriation in the amount of €1,241,200 in order to cover the estimated costs of Case No. 31 (Request for an Advisory Opinion submitted by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law) that could not be absorbed by the approved 2023-2024 budget of the Tribunal.  In its consideration of administrative and budgetary matters of the Tribunal, the Meeting took note of the report of the external auditor for the financial period 2022 and the report on budgetary matters for the financial periods 2021 and 2022.

The Meeting elected seven members of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for a nine-year term commencing on 1 October, namely Frida María Armas Pfirter (Argentina), Tomas Heidar (Iceland), Hidehisa Horinouchi (Japan), Konrad Jan Marciniak (Poland), Zha Hyoung Rhee (Republic of Korea), Osman Keh Kamara (Sierra Leone) and Thembile Elphus Joyini (South Africa).

Under article 319 of the Convention, the Meeting considered the reports of the Secretary-General for the information of States Parties on issues of a general nature, relevant to States Parties, which had arisen with respect to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (see documents A/77/311 and A/78/67). In their interventions, delegations expressed appreciation for the reports of the Secretary-General and the important work of the three bodies established under the Convention. Delegations commended the recent conclusion of negotiations on a draft agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction as a feat of multilateralism and welcomed the convening of a further resumed fifth session of the Intergovernmental Conference on 19 and 20 June with a view to adopting the agreement.

The significance of the agreement in supplementing and enhancing the Convention was highlighted by many delegations.  Delegations further 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; marine scientific research; the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects; protection of the marine environment, including the issue of plastic pollution and the negotiations under way in the International Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution including in the marine environment; impacts of climate change on the ocean, including sea-level rise and ocean acidification and relevant advisory proceedings pending before international courts and tribunals; the blue economy; 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; seabed mining; the situation in the South China Sea; the release of treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station into the sea; and the need for capacity-building, transfer of marine technology and cross-sectoral cooperation and coordination, including in respect of new maritime technologies.

Reference was made to the recent twenty-third meeting of the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea which focused its discussions on “New maritime technologies”. Delegations noted the successful conclusion of the 2023 resumed Review Conference on the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement and recalled the Lisbon 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference, co-hosted by Kenya and Portugal, as an important milestone in accelerating efforts towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 14.  They expressed support for the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference to be co-hosted by Costa Rica and France and held in Nice, France.

In his 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 process of nomination of members of future elections for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Commission.

A more detailed account of the proceedings of the thirty-third Meeting of States Parties will be included in the report of the Meeting, to be issued in due course as document SPLOS/33/15.

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.

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, at www.un.org/Depts/los/meeting_states_parties/meeting_states_parties.htm.