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NOTE: It is the general understanding that
the
members of the Commission participate in international conferences and seminars and
published articles in
scientific periodicals and magazines in their personal capacity,
and that their views
did not represent the views of the Commission. It is the
responsibility of each
member to make a disclaimer to that effect, as appropriate.
(a) The
International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB) hosted a conference in Monaco in
September 1999 entitled "International Conference on technical aspects of
maritime boundary delineation and delimitation, including UNCLOS article 76
issues" sponsored by the Advisory Board on Geodetic, Hydrographic and
Marine Geo-Scientific Aspects of the Law of the Sea (alias, the Advisory Board
on the Technical Aspects of the Law of the Sea, or ABLOS 1/).
Seventy-six
participants from twenty-nine countries attended the Conference. Several members
of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) also
participated. The Conference Proceedings containing the 26 papers presented have
been published by the IHB. 2/
The Conference
was divided into four sessions over a period of two days. The first session,
convened by Galo Carrera (Mexico), a member of the Commission, was devoted to
"Issues concerning the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
". Topics related to the approach of the CLCS to submissions made by
coastal states were considered in contributions presented by several members of
the Commission in their personal capacities. The papers delivered were "The
mandate and work of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf",
presented by Peter Croker (Ireland); "A review of the continental margins
of the world", by Karl Hinz (Germany); "Formulating the New Zealand
Continental Shelf Claim: A First Step", by Iain Lamont (New Zealand);
"Uncertainties and errors in sediment thickness", by Harald Brekke
(Norway); "Wide continental margins of the world: a survey of marine
scientific requirements and international regional cooperation needs posed by
the implementation of Article 76 of UNCLOS", by Galo Carrera (Mexico); and
"Information on the outer limits of the extended continental shelf",
by Alexandre Albuquerque (Brazil) and Galo Carrera.
The remainder
of the sessions were devoted to "Geodetic issues, with emphasis on errors
in maritime boundaries and how to reduce them ", convened by Bjorn G.
Harsson (Norway), which dealt specifically with geodetic problems of delineation
and delimitation of maritime boundaries; "Tools needed for boundary
delimitations ", convened by Ron Macnab (Canada), considered the hardware
and software that would be necessary to obtain the data to substantiate the
establishment of an extended continental shelf , and finally "Other issues
and case studies", convened by Chris Rizos (Australia), discussed specific
issues and presented case studies, only some of which were related to article
76.
(b) A Workshop
entitled "Continental Shelf – Buenos Aires 2000" was held in
November 2000 in Argentina, which was attended by a number of well-known
specialists on the subject of the continental shelf, including a number of
members of the Commission, who were invited to attend in their personal
capacities.
The purpose of
the workshop was to exchange viewpoints, illustrate various methodologies and
analyses of resources, and present relevant studies that have been made to date.
Several members of the Commission who presented papers at the Conference
included Alexandre Albuquerque (Brazil), Osvaldo Pedro Astiz (Argentina), Harald
Brekke (Norway), Karl Hinz (Germany), Yuri Kazmin (Russian Federation, Chairman
of the Commission), Iain Lamont (New Zealand), as did the Secretary of the
Commission, Alexei Zinchenko . Presentations were also made by several experts
engaged in preparing for the establishment of the extended continental shelf in
their own countries, such as Richard Haworth (Canada), Ron Macnab (Canada),
Lindsay Parson (United Kingdom), Walter de Sá Leitão (Brazil), Roberto
Alfradique de Macedo (Brazil), and Phil Symonds (Australia). The members of the
Technical Subcommittee of the Argentine Commission on the determination of the
outer limit of the continental shelf also participated in the Workshop.
(c) During the
twelfth session of the Commission in 2003, the members
of the
Commission exchanged information and opinions with regard to
recent and
forthcoming events, among them the GEBCO Centenary Conference,
from 14 to 16
April 2003; the thirteenth Meeting of States Parties to UNCLOS,
from 9 to 13 June
2003; the Conference on the Legal and Scientific Aspects of
Continental Shelf
Limits in Reykjavik, from 25 to 27 June 2003; the Conference on
the Morphology
and Geological Nature of Deep Seabed and Submarine Elevations in
the Arctic
Basin, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, from 29 June to 5
July 2003; and the third
ABLOS Biennial Scientific Conference, from 28 to 30 October 2003
at the
International Hydrographic Bureau in Monaco.
______________________
Notes
1/ ABLOS
was formed in September 1994 by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO)
and the International Association of Geodesy (IAG)
to provide advice and guidance and, where applicable, offer expert
interpretation of the hydrographic, geodetic and other technical aspects of the
Law of the Sea to the parent organizations, their member States or to other
organizations on request. In 1999 the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
(IOC) of UNESCO was invited to become
associated with ABLOS. The Board is comprised of three representatives from each
organization and one additional member representing the UN Division for Ocean
Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the Office of Legal Affairs (DOALOS) in an
ex-officio capacity.
2/ Proceedings
of the International Conference on Technical Aspects of Maritime Boundary
Delineation and Delimitation (Including UNCLOS Article 76 Issues),
International Hydrographic Bureau, Monaco, 8-9 September 1999
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