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A Filipino has been elected to a seat in the Asia-Pacific Group of the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), which facilitates the implementation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
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The election of Efren Carandang to the commission has won for the Philippines a five-year term as a member of the UN body from 2023 to 2028
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This is the first time that the Philippines, an archipelagic country, has won a seat in the UN commission
The Philippines has won a seat in a United Nations body that facilitates the implementation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS).
Deputy administrator Efren Carandang of the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority garnered votes from 113 state parties to win a seat in the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) of the UN CLCS.
Carandang will be on the commission for a five-year term starting in 2023, the Philippine Mission to the UN in New York said in a statement on Twitter on June 16 (Manila time).
The election was held on June 15 during the 32nd Meeting of the State Parties to UNCLOS at the UN General Assembly.
“[The Philippines] competed with eight other candidates under the APG, and successfully reached the required majority of votes, with 113 votes from a total of 164 state parties present and voting, after four tough rounds of voting,” the Philippine Mission said.
The Mission said this is the first time that the Philippines, an archipelagic country, will have a seat in the UN commission. It added that Philippines’ election to the UN body “promotes the principle of rotation, inclusion, and representation among UNCLOS States.”
The purpose of the UN CLCS is to facilitate the implementation of the UNCLOS in respect of the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.
Under the Convention, the coastal state shall establish the outer limits of its continental shelf where it extends beyond 200 miles on the basis of the recommendation of the CLCS, which endorses to coastal states matters relating to the establishment of those limits.
The Mission said Carandang is one of the Philippines’ “most eminently qualified technical experts for the CLCS with quality management skills.”
In a separate statement, the Philippine Mission to the UN and other International Organizations in Geneva said Carandang is the country’s foremost authority on the technical aspects of the Law of the Sea who can offer to the CLCS his deep, extensive experience in hydrography and its ramifications in international maritime law.
It said Carandang advocates for the full and consistent application of international law, including the UNCLOS, “particularly on the determination of maritime entitlements, delineation of maritime zones and delimitation of international maritime boundaries.”
“He supports both bilateral and multilateral cooperation as a means to manage maritime disputes and address other concerns such as navigational safety and marine environment protection,” the Mission in Geneva added.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration has ruled in favor of the Philippines in the case it filed against China over conflicting claims on the South China Sea.
The intergovernmental organization based in The Hague, Netherlands, said a “unanimous award has been issued today by the tribunal constituted under Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the Convention) in the arbitration instituted by the Republic of the Philippines against the People’s Republic of China.”
The arbitration centered on issues of historic rights and maritime entitlements in the South China Sea, the status of certain maritime features and the maritime entitlements they are capable of generating, and the lawfulness of certain actions by China that were alleged by the Philippines to violate the Convention.
China, however, has not recognized the ruling.
