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The Role of International Organization in Ocean Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Daniel S. Cheever
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Extract

The 22nd session of the United Nations General Assembly was unexpectedly enlivened by a late addition to its agenda when Malta, a newcomer even by UN standards, sought to demilitarize the ocean floor “beyond the limits of present national jurisdiction” and to internationalize its “resources in the interest of mankind.” Ambassador Arvid Pardo, Malta's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, sought immediate steps to draft a treaty that

should envisage the creation of an international agency … to assume jurisdiction, as a trustee for all countries, over the sea-bed and the ocean floor, underlying the seas beyond the limits of present national jurisdiction….

In advancing his proposal, in a surprise move thought to be premature by some governments, Ambassador Pardo accelerated and intensified the consideration of national and international interests in “ocean space.” How is the last earthbound frontier to be explored and exploited? Is it to be assigned to international jurisdiction or taken over by national authorities? A disconcertingly rapid rate of technological advance emphasizes the urgency of a decision. This article will first consider the disposal of the Malta proposal by the 22nd session of the General Assembly and then attempt to consider its significance as a challenge to the development of international organization.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , Summer 1968 , pp. 629 - 648
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1968

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References

1 Malta's UN membership dates from December 1964. The Maltese note verbale requesting the inclusion of a supplementary item on die agenda of die 22nd session of the General Assembly was distributed widi an explanatory memorandum as UN Document A/6695, August 18, 1967.

2 Victor J. Gauci spoke for Malta on this occasion. His comments appear in UN Document A/PV.1583, October 6, 1967, pp. 82–83.

3 See the Peruvian statement in UN Document A/C.1/PV.1529, November 15, 1967, p. 56, and the Chilean statement in UN Document A/C.1/PV.1526, November 13, 1967, pp. 22 and 23. Both governments were seeking to support the 1952 “Declaration of Santiago” in favor of a 200-mile seaward limit for national jurisdiction.

4 President Johnson's statement and Ambassador Goldberg's speeches before the General Assembly's General and First Committees are respectively on pp. 231–232 and pp. 57 and 287 of theInterim Report on the United Nations and the Issue of Deep Ocean Resources together with Hearings by the Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967)Google Scholar(hereinafter cited as Interim Report).

5 The House resolutions are on pp. I, 36, and 77–78 of the Interim Report. The Senate Resolutions are on pp. 1– of U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Hearings, Governing the Use of Outer Space, 90th Congress, 1st session, 1967.

6 General Assembly Resolution 2340 (XXII), December 28, 1967. Thirty-five countries were named t o the Ad Hoc Committee, none of them developing landlocked countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as was noted regretfully by the Nepalese and Paraguayan delegates.

7 General Assembly Resolution 2172 (XXI) of December 6, 1966, requested the Secretary-General to survey activities in marine science and technology undertaken by the UN family of organizations and member governments and to formulate proposals for an expanded program of international cooperation in the exploitation and development of marine resources. Economic and Social Council Resolution 1112 (XL) of March 7, 1966, requested the Secretary-General, in cooperation with the Advisory Committee on the Application of Science and Technology to Development and the specialized agencies, to survey the present state of knowledge of the resources of the sea, excluding fish, beyond the continental shelf and to identify those (now considered to be capable of economic exploitation, especially for the benefit of developing countries.) The Assembly resolutions called for reports to the 23rd session.

8 The views of the Soviet delegate, L. I. Mendelevich, may be found in UN Documents A/C.1/1525, pp. 8–21, and A/C.1/1544, pp. 31–32. The Soviet Union introduced the IOC resolution (v–6) promulgated as UN Document SG/CS/150 (1) which carried in October 1967. The Secretary of IOC is a Soviet national who serves also as the Director of UNESCO's Office of Oceanography.

9 UN Document A/C.1/952, October 31, 1967. The most important previous resolutions are General Assembly Resolution 2172 (XXI) and Economic and Social Council Resolution 1112 (XL), both adopted in 1966.

10 UN Document A/C.1/952, p. 4.

11 SeeNew Dimensions for the United Nations, seventeenth report of the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace, Eichelberger, Clark M., Chairman (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y: Oceana Publications, 1966), pp. 39–41Google Scholar.

12 Resolution 15 of the Geneva World Peace Through Law Conference is cited in Interim Report, p. 8.

13 Church, Frank, The UN at Twenty-One, report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate 90th Congress, ist session, 02 1967, p. 25Google Scholar; and Oceanography, 1966:Achievements and Opportunities, National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council publication 1492 (Washington, 1967), p. 183Google Scholar (hereinafter cited as Oceanography, 1966).

14 Langeraar, W., The North Sea,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, 01 1967 (Vol. 93, No. 1), p. 20 ffGoogle Scholar. See also Article 6 of the Convention on the Continental Shelf (contained in UN Document A/CONF.13/L.55).

15 Interim Report, p. 164. See also remarks byGoldie, L. F. E. in Alexander, Louis M., ed., The Law of the Sea (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1967), pp. 273–279Google Scholar.

16 These problems are discussed by NathanielMcKitterick, M. in U.S. Diplomacy in the Development Agencies of the United Nations (Washington: National Planning Association, 1965)Google Scholar and by Chapman, W. Mel in several addresses, notably “The State of Ocean Use Management” at the second session of the Food and Agriculture Organization's Committee on Fisheries, Rome, 04 24, 1967Google Scholar.

17 Fedorov, K. N., “International Oceanography—The Way Scientific Cooperation Develops,” UN Monthly Chronicle, 03 1966 (Vol. 3, No. 3), pp. 29–37Google Scholar.

18 Oceanography, 1966, p. 180. See also a similar recommendation for “long-term action” in International Ocean Affairs, a special report prepared by a joint working group appointed by the Advisory Committee on Marine Resources Research of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research of the International Council of Scientific Unions, and the Advisory Committee of the World Meteorological Organization (La Jolla, Calif: September 1967).

19 Marine Science Affairs—A Year of Transition (Washington: National Council on Marine Resources and Engineering Development, 02 1967), p. 24Google Scholar. The Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research and Development heads the Committee on Marine Research, Education, and Facilities. The Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs heads the Committee on International Policy in the Marine Environment. The five committees report to the Vice President as Chairman of the National Council on Marine Resources and Engineering Development.

20 Ibid., p. 28.

21 UN Document A/6695, P. 2.

22 Ibid., p. 3.

23 Stoessinger, John G. and Associates, Financing the United Nations System (Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1964)Google Scholar, passim and, on revenue from Antarctic exploration and ocean resources, pp. 281–289.