Meeting of States Parties to United Nations Convention on Law of Sea Held at Headquarters, 23-26 June

NEW YORK, 27 June (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) — The thirty-fifth Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was held at Headquarters from 23 to 26 June.  The background press release can be found at:  https://press.un.org/en/2025/sea2232.doc.htm.

The Meeting elected Nguyen Minh Vu (Viet Nam) as President, by acclamation.  Milan Jaya Nyamrajsingh Meetarbhan (Mauritius), David Antonio Giret Soto (Paraguay), Laura McIlhenny (Australia) and Mykola Prytula (Ukraine) were elected as Vice-Presidents, also by acclamation.

The Meeting took note of the annual report of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for 2024, 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-fourth Meeting of States Parties held in 2024.

In his capacity as Co-Coordinator of the Open-Ended Working Group on the Conditions of Service of Members of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, John Pangipita (United Republic of Tanzania) delivered a report on its work since the thirty-fourth Meeting.  Following the resignation of Sidney Kemble (Netherlands), the Meeting decided to defer the consideration of the appointment of a Co-Coordinator of the Open-Ended Working Group from developed States until the thirty-sixth Meeting of States Parties and that the Working Group would continue to function for the time being under the coordination of Mr. Pangipita.

The Meeting conducted a by-election for vacancies in the Commission allocated to members of the Commission from the Group of Eastern European States and the Group of Western European and Other States, electing Stig-Morten Knutsen (Norway) for a term of office commencing on the date of the election and ending on 15 June 2028.

In the absence of other nominations, the Meeting decided in respect of the vacant seat allocated to members of the Commission from the Group of Eastern European States, which had remained unfilled since 2015, that the Secretary-General would circulate a call for nominations with a view to conducting elections at the thirty-sixth Meeting of States Parties in 2026, if the President received information about potential candidates no later than 1 March 2026.  If a candidate had not been identified by that date, the Group should transmit, by the same date, a proposal on how to address the ongoing vacancy.

In its consideration of administrative and budgetary matters of the Tribunal, the Meeting took note of the report on budgetary matters for the financial periods 2023 and 2024 and the report of the external auditor for the financial period 2024.  The Meeting also decided to extend Indonesia and Canada as member and alternate member, respectively, of the staff pension committee of the Tribunal for a three-year term of office starting on 1 January 2026.

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 A/79/340 and A/80/70).  In their interventions, delegations addressed a wide range of matters of relevance to oceans and the law of the sea.

A more detailed account of the proceedings of the thirty-fifth Meeting of States Parties will be included in the report of the Meeting, to be issued in due course as document SPLOS/35/11.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was adopted on 10 December 1982, entered into force on 16 November 1994.  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.

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.