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Securing exclusive access and jurisdictional certainty to the potentially lucrative resources of the seabed such as oil, gas, minerals and living marine organisms is considered by many coastal states to be crucial for their future development.

Commonwealth participates in presentations by small island states to the UN

24 August 2009

Focus is on securing exclusive access to potentially lucrative resources of the seabed

The Commonwealth is assisting Mauritius, Seychelles and the Cook Islands when they each make their formal continental shelf presentations to the United Nations this week. These presentations follow continental shelf submissions lodged by each of these countries earlier this year.

Cook Islands became the first Pacific Islands country to make a continental shelf submission to the UN, when it lodged its submission on 16 April 2009. In their submission, the Cook Islands seeks to secure access to 413,000 square kilometres of additional seabed in the region of the Manihiki Plateau, making it one of the single largest areas of extended continental shelf in the world.

Mauritius and Seychelles became the first small island states to make a joint submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, when they lodged their submission concerning the Mascarene Plateau in December 2008, under which they have jointly sought to secure 387,000 sq km of additional seabed. Subsequently, both countries have made separate individual submissions for other areas of additional seabed, which are the subject of the presentations to be made this week.

What is a continental shelf?

The continental shelf of a coastal state comprises 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. (Source: Article 76, 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)

“The ocean and its resources have always been important to the culture, commerce and way of life of many island nations. This process is about securing exclusive access to additional areas of seabed, so that present and future generations can benefit from the management of resources such as oil, gas, minerals and genetic resources that may be found in these areas,” said Joshua Brien, a Legal Adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

The Secretariat provided legal and technical advice and assistance throughout the development of each of these submissions in the form of in-house legal expertise and through the engagement of scientific experts to provide advice to government teams as required.

“The presentations this week involve many high officials, and provide an opportunity for each of these small island countries to impress upon the Commission the importance of the continental shelf process to their country and their people,” noted Mr Brien, a specialist in law of the sea and natural resources law who managed each of these projects from their inception. He has been attached to each of the country delegations to the Commission, and will participate in the presentations.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is a multilateral treaty that establishes a framework of rules and principles to govern all ocean space. The Convention has been ratified by more than 158 countries, including some 47 Commonwealth member countries.

The Executive Summaries of each of the Submissions are publicly available at: http://www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs