ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE TO STATES
General Information
Updated
on 08 April 2009
Article 3 of Annex II to the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 stipulates that the functions of the
Commission shall be:
(a) to consider the data and other material
submitted by coastal States concerning the outer limits of the continental
shelf in areas where those limits extend beyond 200 nautical miles,
and to make recommendations in accordance with article 76 and the
Statement of Understanding adopted on 29 August 1980 by the
Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea;
(b) to provide scientific and technical advice,
if requested by the coastal State concerned during the preparation of the
data referred to in subparagraph (a).
In June 1997, at its
first session, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf established
a subsidiary body - the Standing Committee on provision of scientific and
technical advice to coastal States.
In April -
May 2003, the Committee had discussed various ways to facilitate the role of the
Committee. Among other things, the Committee recommended that a list of
Commission members should be compiled, accompanied by
short biographical notes and a brief statement
of expertise.
In 2007, at its
twentieth session, the Commission renewed the composition of this Committee and
appointed Messrs. Charles, German, Kalngui, Rajan and Symonds as members. The
Committee elected Mr. Symonds as Chairman and Messrs. Kalngui and Rajan
as Vice-Chairmen.
The Commission determined that advice provided by
a member of the Commission does not commit the subcommission and the Commission
when deliberating on the merits of a submission and should not be prejudicial to
such deliberation.
Requests for advice and assistance should be addressed
to the Secretary of the Commission.
It would be helpful to the Scientific and
Technical Advice Committee in fulfilling its functions if States could specify
details of the nature of the assistance required to enable the Committee to
prepare a list of the “proposed members who may provide advice taking into
consideration the technical and scientific nature of each request”. | 
