UN and piracy

The UNCLOS (The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) came into existence as a result of the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), which began in 1973 and concluded in 1982. The convention, nevertheless, came into force only in 1994, a year after the 60th state Guyana ratified it. It defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world’s oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, environment, and management of marine natural resources. The convention also assumed significance as it set limits of various areas and classified areas of jurisdiction. This includes internal waters (the coastal state reserves exclusive rights over them; no right of passage for foreign vessels); territorial waters (extends up to 12 nautical lines from the baseline; foreign vessels permitted right of peaceful passage); contiguous zone (beyond the initial 12 nautical miles, another 12 nautical miles where the respective coastal states can continue to enforce laws regarding activities such as smuggling or illegal migration); exclusive economic zones (extends upto 200 nautical miles from the baselins, with the coastal state given exclusive rights over the use of natural resources); and continental shelf (natural prolongation of the land territory to the continental margin’s outer edge, or 200 nautical miles from the coastal state’s baseline, whichever is greater).

In its efforts to combat escalating piracy off the coasts of Somalia, the UN Security Council in June 2008 unanimously passed Resolution 1816 which authorised foreign warships to enter Somalia’s territorial waters with the Government’s consent. But the resolution is yet to be implemented. A multinational taskforce has also been operational in Djibouti in recent months to patrol parts of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, where a pirate mothership is believed to be functional.

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