UN Security Council adopts first-ever outcome document on maritime security under India’s presidency

UN Security Council adopts first-ever outcome document on maritime security under India’s presidency

Subject: International Relations

Context The UNSC adopted a ‘Presidential (India’s) Statement’ which reaffirmed that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) establishes the legal framework for maritime activities

Concept:

UNCLOS

• The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is an international treaty which was adopted and signed in 1982.
• It replaced the four Geneva Conventions of April, 1958, which respectively concerned the territorial sea and the contiguous zone, the continental shelf, the high seas, fishing and conservation of living resources on the high seas.
• The Convention has created three new institutions on the international scene :
• the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
• the International Seabed Authority
• the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
• UNCLOS as the currently prevailing law of the sea is binding completely.
• There are 17 parts, 320 articles and nine annexes to UNCLOS
• The law of the sea provides for full rights to nations for a 200-mile zone from their shoreline. The sea and oceanic bed extending this area is regarded to be Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and any country can use these waters for their economic utilization.
• The U.S. has not accepted UNCLOS because of opposition from Republicans in the Senate, where treaties must be approved by a two-thirds’ vote.