Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
of 10 December and the 1995 Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of
the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Relating
to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks.
It should also be understood that UNCLOS cannot provide and has never been
intended to provide an answer to every problem that arises. UNCLOS is a framework
convention. As a framework convention, which enjoys almost universal acceptance,
it has proved to be a flexible instrument serving as a solid legal foundation for the
further progressive development of the international law of the sea. UNCLOS
therefore should be viewed as a solid foundation for international governance of
maritime activities, which is an ongoing law-making process; as a platform on which
new emerging issues relating to the international governance of activities in the
oceans are to be addressed, gaps closed and deficiencies, if discovered, to be
corrected.
For many years, oceans have been viewed as capable of supporting any human
activity and their resources have been considered unlimited. In our days, it is
universally recognized that increasing human activities are pushing the oceans to
the limits of their ecological carrying capacity that marine resources are exhaustible
and that urgent actions are to be taken to ensure their sustainable use. UNCLOS,
which is now more than forty years old, does not address a number of emerging
issues such as the conservation of biodiversity, CO 2 sequestration, the use of marine
genetic resources, the issues arising in connection with global warming and rapidly
increasing demand for energy sources. UNCLOS therefore needs to be
supplemented by additional regulatory regimes to meet these new challenges.
The need for further regulatory regime supplementing the Convention was
confirmed, when on 24 December 2017 the General Assembly of the United Nations
by resolution A/RES/249 decided to convene an intergovernmental conference “to
elaborate the text of an internationally legally binding instrument under the United
Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use
of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction”.
1 Multiple
complex issues that need to be resolved in this instrument were discussed at the
VIIth Colloquium of the AssIDMer and presentations made in this regard are
included in Part III of this volume.
The international community of States should seek solution to these emerging
issues through the process of international governance within the framework of
relevant existing institutions, first of all the United Nations, its agencies and related
organizations that provide fora where States and other actors can engage in dialogues
and negotiations which, if successful, should result in new norms and regulatory
regimes supplementary to the one established by the Convention and facilitating its
implementation.
1 General Assembly resolution 72/249, A/RES/248, of 24 December 2017.
vi
Foreword
of 10 December and the 1995 Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of
the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Relating
to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks.
It should also be understood that UNCLOS cannot provide and has never been
intended to provide an answer to every problem that arises. UNCLOS is a framework
convention. As a framework convention, which enjoys almost universal acceptance,
it has proved to be a flexible instrument serving as a solid legal foundation for the
further progressive development of the international law of the sea. UNCLOS
therefore should be viewed as a solid foundation for international governance of
maritime activities, which is an ongoing law-making process; as a platform on which
new emerging issues relating to the international governance of activities in the
oceans are to be addressed, gaps closed and deficiencies, if discovered, to be
corrected.
For many years, oceans have been viewed as capable of supporting any human
activity and their resources have been considered unlimited. In our days, it is
universally recognized that increasing human activities are pushing the oceans to
the limits of their ecological carrying capacity that marine resources are exhaustible
and that urgent actions are to be taken to ensure their sustainable use. UNCLOS,
which is now more than forty years old, does not address a number of emerging
issues such as the conservation of biodiversity, CO 2 sequestration, the use of marine
genetic resources, the issues arising in connection with global warming and rapidly
increasing demand for energy sources. UNCLOS therefore needs to be
supplemented by additional regulatory regimes to meet these new challenges.
The need for further regulatory regime supplementing the Convention was
confirmed, when on 24 December 2017 the General Assembly of the United Nations
by resolution A/RES/249 decided to convene an intergovernmental conference “to
elaborate the text of an internationally legally binding instrument under the United
Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use
of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction”.
1 Multiple
complex issues that need to be resolved in this instrument were discussed at the
VIIth Colloquium of the AssIDMer and presentations made in this regard are
included in Part III of this volume.
The international community of States should seek solution to these emerging
issues through the process of international governance within the framework of
relevant existing institutions, first of all the United Nations, its agencies and related
organizations that provide fora where States and other actors can engage in dialogues
and negotiations which, if successful, should result in new norms and regulatory
regimes supplementary to the one established by the Convention and facilitating its
implementation.
1 General Assembly resolution 72/249, A/RES/248, of 24 December 2017.
vi
Foreword