United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 1 October 1982 (13th Sitting) (see Doc. 4958, report of the Legal Affairs Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 1 October 1982 (13th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Considering that, on 30 April 1982, the 3rd United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea completed its work by approving an international convention ;
2. Considering that the final session of the conference, at which the Convention on the Law of the Sea will be opened for signature, is likely to take place in Caracas in December 1982 ;
3. Expressing the hope that the convention adopted by the 3rd United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea by an overwhelming majority will win the widest possible acceptance, to enable it to serve its purpose in a global context ;
4. Considering that the convention, with its 320 articles and 9 annexes, deals with practically every kind of human use of the high seas and oceans and their floor, such as navigation, exploration and exploitation of the sea-bed, delimitation of maritime zones, fishing, conservation and pollution, scientific research, and the peaceful settlement of disputes ;
5. Considering that a number of issues in the convention are controversial, and divide industrialised and developing countries, while other issues such as fisheries and the delimitation of maritime boundaries divide a number of Council of Europe member states ;
6. Considering that it will be desirable to reach the maximum amount of consensus on Law of the Sea matters, both within and without the circle of Council of Europe member states ;
7. Considering that its members, in their capacity as members of national parliaments, may be called upon, in the near future, to take a decision concerning the ratification of this convention ;
8. Desirous to make available to its members the maximum amount of information on the convention ;
9. Noting that a colloquy on oceanography will be organised in Strasbourg from 14 to 16 March 1983, within the framework of the Assembly's "Exercise in Scientific Co-operation",
10. Instructs its Legal Affairs Committee, with the help and in close co-operation with the other Assembly committees concerned, to organise, in the first half of 1983, a symposium or parliamentary hearing on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
