The commission assigned to prepare for the entry into force of a high-seas biodiversity treaty continued its first session today, addressing financial rules governing the instrument’s operationalization. Among the key proposals presented were consideration of the special circumstances of small island developing States and least developed countries, as well as a multi-year budget cycle.

In the third day of its first session, the commission responsible for preparing for the entry into force of a new treaty on maritime biodiversity addressed issues including the location, frequency and format for meetings of the Conference of the Parties to that accord, as well as the procedural rules that will apply to its subsidiary bodies.

The commission tasked with preparing for the entry into force of a new treaty on maritime biodiversity continued its first session today, taking up issues relating to how subsidiary bodies established under that accord will function as well as those pertaining to the functioning and location of its future secretariat.

As the commission tasked with preparing for the entry into force of a new treaty on maritime biodiversity opened its first session today, speakers both underlined the importance of moving this process forward and emphasized that the proper care must be taken in designing the modalities by which to do so.

On the sidelines of the seventy-eighth United Nations General Debate, 85 States and 1 international organization undertook a total of 102 actions at the annual Treaty Event which ended today.

On 22 January, the Permanent Representative of Palau handed over to the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel Palau’s instrument of ratification of the 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 at United Nations Headquarters. This is the first instrument of ratification for the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement that has been deposited.

Following yesterday’s landmark adoption of the historic new maritime biodiversity treaty, the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction concluded its work today, as delegates underscored the importance of the agreement’s swift implementation and rapid ratification and called for funding towards this end.

With a standing ovation marking the conclusion of years of extensive negotiations, the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction today adopted a historic maritime biodiversity treaty.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

Following nearly 36 hours of non-stop negotiations, the Intergovernmental Conference today reached agreement on the text for a historic new maritime biodiversity treaty, as it adjourned its fifth resumed session.