States Parties to United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea Fill Vacancy

 in Commission on Limits of Continental Shelf, Currently in Session

The States parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea today opened its doors to fill a vacancy in the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, in the midst of that body’s annual session at Headquarters.

The Commission, a sub-body facilitating the implementation of the Convention in respect to the outer limits of the continental shelf, elected Tetsuro Urabe ( Japan) by a secret-ballot vote of 131 in favour to none opposed, with 2 abstentions.  Mr. Urabe thus obtained the two-thirds majority necessary to secure his election to the vacancy, which was owed to the untimely death of Kensaku Tamaki ( Japan) on 5 April.  Mr. Urabe would fill that post for the remainder of Mr. Tamaki’s term, slated to end on 15 June 2012.

Prior to the vote, the States parties observed a minute of silent prayer or meditation for Mr. Tamaki’s passing.

In other business today, Robert Eric Alabado Borje ( Philippines), Chair of the Credentials Committee of the States Parties ( Belgium, Brazil, Ghana, Norway, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Zambia), introduced a report (document SPLOS/236) in which the Committee accepted the credentials of all representatives participating in the Meeting.  The States parties then approved the Committee’s report by consensus.

Often referred to as “the constitution of the oceans”, the landmark Convention on the Law of the Sea had been adopted on 10 December 1982 and entered into force on 16 November 1994.  Its 320 articles and nine annexes govern all aspects of ocean space and maritime issues, from navigational rights, maritime limits and marine scientific research, to resource management, marine-environment protection and dispute settlement.  The Convention established the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Seabed Authority and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

The continental shelf is defined by the Convention as the “seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance” (article 76, paragraph 1).  In turn, the continental margin is defined as comprising “the submerged prolongation of the land mass of the coastal State, and consists of the seabed and subsoil of the shelf, the slope and the rise.  It does not include the deep ocean floor with its oceanic ridges or the subsoil thereof” (article 76, paragraph 3).  The Convention gives coastal States sovereign rights to explore and exploit the natural resources of the continental shelf (article 77).

The outer limits of the continental shelf divide the area of seabed that falls under the jurisdiction of the respective coastal States and the international area of seabed which constitutes what the General Assembly and the Convention (article 136) declared “common heritage of mankind”.  The resources of the seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction are to be managed jointly by the States parties through the International Seabed Authority (article 157 of the Convention).

The twenty-eighth session of the Commission runs from 1 August to 9 September.  For additional information, visit the website of the Commission, maintained by the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea:  www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm.