Secretary-General's Report and Briefing Provide Update on Oceans Compact

12 November 2012: The UN Secretary-General’s 2012 Report on Oceans and the Law of the Sea and the Secretary-General’s new Oceans Compact were the subjects of a briefing held on 12 November 2012, in New York, US. The briefing was hosted by Achim Steiner, Chair of the High-level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and Patricia O’Brien, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs.

The Secretary-General’s report covers UN activities on oceans from September 2011 to August 2012. It provides updates on recent meetings of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and its agreements, as well as established UN bodies pertaining to this Convention. The report highlights oceans’ sustainability in regard to maritime laws, security issues, marine conservation, small island developing States (SIDS) and climate change.

The report also includes details of the Secretary-General’s new Oceans Compact, an initiative to improve coherence within the UN on oceans issues. The report outlines the creation of an Action Plan and Oceans Advisory Group to implement the Compact’s objectives. Efforts also will be made to reconstitute the Terms of Reference for UN Oceans, following a review and recommendations by the Joint Inspection Unit, the report notes.

During the briefing, Member States discussed processes of the Oceans Compact and the reconstitution of UN Oceans. Steiner, who will be responsible for the restructuring of UN Oceans in his HLCP role, stressed that the Secretary-General’s goal is to strengthen and coordinate UN oceans activities, not to change policy agendas agreed to by Member States. Several countries, however, raised concerns about a lack of government consultation when crafting the Compact’s Action Plan, and fears that the Compact was not fully representative of their views. In response, Steiner agreed to host more Member State consultations and to share the draft Terms of Reference for the Oceans Advisory Group, but stressed that this process is the responsibility of the Secretary-General’s, not intergovernmental negotiations. [IISD RS Sources] [Oceans and the Law of the Sea: Report of the Secretary-General]