Law of the Sea Convention: ten years later.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea had been a "milestone in our Organization's almost 50-year history, a milestone in the building of a true community of nations", said Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on 10 December, addressing the General Assembly on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Convention's opening for signature in Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 10 December 1982.

The Convention has been signed by 159 Governments--a total never before achieved by any international treaty. However, it has yet to be ratified by all States, including large industrialized countries which, the Secretary-General stated, were among the major maritime users and the "major polluters" of the sea. Citizens of those countries "must be made aware of that fact and must decide whether such a state of affairs can go on", Mr. Boutros-Ghali said.

The Convention addressed the "whole of human activity", aiming "not to tame the sea", which the Secretary-General said was the "last wild portion of the |finite world'", but to ensure that man's share in it was "at least shaped by law".

Major impact

Although not yet in force, the Convention has had a "major impact on State practice in maritime matters", Jose Luis Jesus of Cape Verde, Chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the International Seabed Authority and for the international Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, told the Assembly. A substantial practice had developed among an overwhelming majority of States to "adjust their policies and national legislation to the new legal order for the oceans".

However, problems still remained. Thomas Richardson of the United Kingdom, speaking on behalf of the European Community, said that "for universality--and necessary financial support--to be achieved, outstanding issues relating to deep seabed mining would have to be resolved".

Irvin Hicks of the United States believed that the seabed mining regime was "seriously flawed". Notwithstanding the "general success" of the Convention, consensus had "eluded the international community on the issue of deep seabed mining". That had been unfortunate because his country continued to support the objective of a "universally acceptable Convention", he said.

In resolution 47/65, adopted on 11 December, the Assembly called upon all States to "consider ratifying or acceding to the Convention at the earliest possible date to allow the effective entry into force of the new legal regime for the uses of the sea".

The world body recognized that political and economic changes, including in particular a growing reliance on market principles, underscored the "need to re-evaluate, in the light of the issues of concern to some States", matters in the seabed mining regime. A "productive dialogue" on such issues involving all interested parties would "facilitate the prospect of universal participation in the Convention, for the benefit of mankind as a whole".

At the 10 December commemoration, Mr. Boutros-Ghali paid tribute to Ambassador Arvid Pardo of Malta who 2 5 years ago, he said, had urged the Assembly to place the question of the law of the sea on its agenda and helped convince it of the "necessity of adapting the law of the sea to the new world landscape".

Common heritage

Mr. Pardo, 79, a proponent of the concept of the common heritage of mankind, wanted to link it to preserving the resources of the sea. "When presenting that idea, I thought it could serve as sort of a bridge to the future and unite the world community in its quest to preserve our planet for generations to come", he said in a recent interview with the UN Chronicle.

"No doubt, the declaration of the seabed and its resources as the common heritage of mankind was bound to change the structural relationship between rich and poor countries. And that change amounted to a revolution not merely in the law of the sea but also in international relations."