Oceans and Law of the Sea

NEW YORK, 15 March (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs) ― The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf held its thirty-first session at United Nations Headquarters from 21 January to 8 March 2013. The thirty-first session included two weeks of plenary meetings and five weeks devoted to the technical examination of submissions at the geographic information systems laboratories and other technical facilities of the Division.

The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will hold its thirty-first session from 21 January to 8 March 2013. The plenary segments of the session will be held from 28 January to 1 February and from 25 February to 1 March, while the remainder of the time will be devoted to the technical examination of submissions at the Geographic Information Systems laboratories and other technical facilities of the Division.

A Special Meeting of the States Parties to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea today elected Szymon Uścinowicz of Poland to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, filling the 21-member body’s last seat allotted to the Group of Eastern European States.

The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf held its thirtieth session at United Nations Headquarters from 30 July to 24 August 2012. The period from 13 August to 24 August 2012 was devoted to the technical examination of submissions at the Geographic Information Systems facilities of the Division.

The Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea and the Korea Maritime Institute, in cooperation with the Organizing Committee for Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea, are organizing the year’s Yeosu International Conference in commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the opening for signature of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

NEW YORK, 26 July (United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) — Pursuant to General Assembly resolution 66/231 of 24 December 2011, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will hold its thirtieth session from 30 July to 24 August 2012.

NEW YORK, 23 July (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea/DOALOS, Office of Legal Affairs) — Miguel Enrique Tesoro Torres of Cuba has been awarded the twenty-fifth Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe Fellowship on the Law of the Sea. Ousmane Diouf of Senegal has been selected as alternate in case Mr. Torres is unable to accept the Fellowship.

The twenty-second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea concluded its annual session today with the approval of a 3 per cent reduction in the proposed budget of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for the biennium 2013-2014, bringing the total figure to €21,239,130, an increase of just over 4 per cent from the Tribunal’s previous budget.

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea offered a unique, flexible framework for adapting to the Earth’s evolving political and environmental challenges, said experts today as the Meeting of States Parties marked World Oceans Day — commemorated annually on 8 June — and adopted a declaration on the occasion of the Convention’s thirtieth anniversary.

Concluding a protracted voting process, States parties to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea today elected Muhammad Arshad of Pakistan as a member of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf following eight rounds of voting that took place over two days.