STATEMENT BY MR NATHANIEL KHNG, COUNSELLOR (LEGAL), PERMANENT MISSION OF SINGAPORE TO THE UNITED NATIONS, ON AGENDA ITEM 72, ON OCEANS AND THE LAW OF THE SEA, GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 9 DECEMBER 2022
9 December 2022
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Mr President,
1 Thank you very much for presiding over this session. It is fitting that, after having commemorated the 40th anniversary of the adoption and opening for signature of the constitution for the oceans, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the General Assembly is now considering draft resolution A/77/L.36, entitled “Oceans and the law of the sea”.
2 This annual resolution is one of the most important resolutions that the Assembly negotiates and adopts each year. It reaffirms the status of UNCLOS as setting out the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out. As the omnibus resolution, it covers a broad spectrum of issues, developments and activities pertaining to ocean affairs and the law of the sea.
3 Singapore had the great honour to coordinate and facilitate the informal consultations on draft resolution A/77/L.36. I am pleased to introduce the draft resolution on behalf of the coordinator, Ms. Natalie Morris-Sharma. On her behalf, I wish to express deep gratitude for the support and constructive engagement of all delegations, acknowledge the valuable contributions of the small group facilitators, and express special appreciation for the support rendered by the Division for Oceans Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS) in the run up to and throughout this year’s informal consultations. Last but not least, I thank all the co-sponsors for your valuable support.
4 This year, in-person informal consultations were convened for the first time since the pandemic was declared, with negotiations held in September and November. Since the resolution that was adopted at the 74th session in 2019, the two intervening years only saw updates that were technical in nature, or changes related to the preparation for meetings, budgets and mandates, as well as purely factual updates to the text. This time, around one third of the resolution, which has over 400 preambular and operative paragraphs, has been updated and adjusted. This demonstrates the great interest by Member States in this resolution, and I thank all delegations for their active participation. The following are some of the key matters addressed in this year’s resolution, in the order that they appear.
(a) First, in addition to welcoming various capacity-building activities that have been undertaken and speaking at various points to the impacts of climate change on the oceans and seas, the resolution issues a call to support capacity-building activities in the area of mitigation of and adaptation to climate change impacts on the ocean.
(b) Second, the resolution notes with appreciation the meetings and activities held to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the adoption and opening for signature of UNCLOS.
(c) Third, the resolution takes stock of the work of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Seabed Authority, and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. The resolution emphasises the ongoing need for the Authority’s draft regulations to ensure that any exploitation activities would take place with the effective protection of the marine environment in accordance with UNCLOS. The resolution also notes the challenges faced by the Commission during the continued pandemic in carrying out its work.
(d) Fourth, the resolution, which dedicates a number of paragraphs to the work and activities carried out in relation to the issues of marine debris and of marine pollution, welcomes the decision of UNEA to convene an intergovernmental negotiating committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.
(e) Fifth, the resolution welcomes the holding of the fourth and fifth sessions of the BBNJ Intergovernmental Conference and requests the Secretary-General to convene the resumed fifth session of the Conference from 20 February to 3 March 2023.
(f) Sixth, the resolution endorses the recommendations adopted by the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole on the Regular Process on the four brief documents of the second World Ocean Assessment and the preliminary timetable and implementation plan for the third cycle of the Regular Process.
5 This concludes the introduction of the draft resolution. On behalf of the coordinator, I commend the draft resolution to the General Assembly for adoption.
Mr President,
6 With your permission, I wish to deliver some remarks in my national capacity. My delegation would like to align itself with the statement that will be delivered shortly by Antigua and Barbuda on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States. We thank the Secretary-General for his reports. We note, from the latest report that the ocean remains under constant threat from human activities and that the global pandemic continues to have a negative impact on ocean-related issues and activities. For small island nations like Singapore, whose survival and prosperity depend on the ocean, this is of great concern. As evident from the report, however, efforts to address ocean issues have continued, which is encouraging. In this connection, I wish to make three points.
7 First, there is an urgent need for the international community to step up efforts to address the impact of climate change on the ocean. It is particularly alarming that global mean sea-levels, according to the Secretary-General’s latest report, reached their highest recorded levels in 2021. Sea-level rise caused by climate change poses an existential threat to small island developing States, including Singapore. We therefore welcome developments that may serve to facilitate progress on dealing with the impact of climate change on the ocean, while emphasising that all efforts in this regard should be undertaken within the legal framework provided by UNCLOS. One recent positive development is a decision of the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which the draft resolution notes, to hold an annual dialogue to strengthen ocean-based action under the UNFCCC. We also welcome the attention given to capacity-building in this area, which is reflected in a new paragraph in the draft resolution that calls for support and strengthening of capacity-building activities in developing countries in relation to mitigation of and adaptation to climate change impacts on the ocean, including protection of coasts against sea-level rise.
8 Second, Singapore welcomes the convening of the fourth and fifth sessions of the BBNJ Intergovernmental Conference in March and August this year. As reflected in the Secretary-General’s latest report, there was, at the fifth session, “substantial progress” towards the finalisation of the text of the BBNJ treaty. My delegation looks forward to the resumption of the fifth session in February next year, and we call on all delegations to work towards the conclusion of an ambitious and future-proof BBNJ treaty at the resumed session. The conclusion of the BBNJ treaty will be a success of UNCLOS, and a major step forward in the international community’s efforts in the conservation and sustainable use of our global commons, and will strengthen multilateral cooperation on ocean governance.
9 Third, Singapore welcomes the convening of the second UN Ocean Conference in June 2022 co-hosted by Kenya and Portugal. The declaration adopted at the second Conference, together with the declaration adopted at the first Conference, will play an important role in international efforts to conserve and sustainably use the ocean and its resources. Such efforts, as affirmed in both declarations and reflected in SDG Target 14.c, must be based on international law as reflected in UNCLOS. Singapore was honoured to co-chair, with Iceland, an interactive dialogue on this topic at the second Conference.
Mr President,
10 I conclude by welcoming the paragraphs included in the draft resolution on the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the adoption and opening for signature of UNCLOS. UNCLOS has been, and always will be, the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out. We fully agree with the Secretary-General’s report that its status as such is “well-established”. We call on all Member States which have yet to become a party to UNCLOS to do so as soon as possible.
11 Thank you for your attention.
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