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⇨ Important points about the Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS):
⇨ The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), is also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty.
⇨ The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was opened for signature at Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 10 December 1982.
⇨ It entered into force on 14 November 1994 and As of June 2016, 167 countries and the European Union are parties.
⇨ It is considered the “constitution of the oceans” and represents the result of an unprecedented, and so far never replicated, effort at codification and progressive development of international law.
⇨ UNCLOS replaced the four treaties of the 1958 Convention on the High Seas.
⇨ UNCLOS replaced the four Geneva Conventions of April 1958.
⇨ In 2023, an agreement was reached on a High Seas Treaty to be added as an instrument of the convention, to protect ocean life in international waters.
⇨ UNCLOS divides marine areas into five main zones namely - Internal Waters, Territorial Sea, Contiguous Zone, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and the High Seas.
⇨ Baseline:
⇨ (1) The normal baseline is the low-water line along the coast as marked on large-scale charts officially recognized by the coastal State.
⇨ (2) Special rules for determining the baseline apply in a variety of circumstances, such as with bays, ports, mouths of rivers, deeply indented coastlines, fringing reefs, and roadsteads.
⇨ Internal Waters :
⇨ (1) Internal (or inland) waters are the waters on the landward side of the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.
⇨ (2) The coastal State has full sovereignty over its internal waters as if they were part of its land territory.
⇨ (3) The coastal State may exclude foreign flag vessels from its internal waters subject to the right of entry of vessels in distress.
⇨ (4) The right of innocent passage does not apply in internal waters.
⇨ (5) Examples of internal waters include rivers, canals, and lakes, including The Great Lakes.
⇨ Territorial Sea:
⇨ (1) Each coastal State may claim a territorial sea that extends seaward up to 12 nautical miles (nm) from its baselines.
⇨ (2) The coastal State exercises sovereignty over its territorial sea, the airspace above it, and the seabed and subsoil beneath it.
⇨ (3) Foreign flag ships enjoy the right of innocent passage while transiting the territorial sea subject to laws and regulations adopted by the coastal State that are in conformity with the Law of the Sea Convention and other rules of international law relating to such passage.
⇨ Contiguous Zone:
⇨ (1) Each coastal State may claim a contiguous zone adjacent to and beyond its territorial sea that extends seaward up to 24 nm from its baselines.
⇨ (2) In its contiguous zone, a coastal State may exercise the control necessary to prevent the infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea, and punish infringement of those laws and regulations committed within its territory or territorial sea.
⇨ (3) Additionally, in order to control trafficking in archaeological and historical objects found at sea, a coastal State may presume that their removal from the seabed of the contiguous zone without its consent is unlawful.
⇨ Exclusive Economic Zone:
⇨ (1) Each coastal State may claim an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) beyond and adjacent to its territorial sea that extends seaward up to 200 nm from its baselines (or out to a maritime boundary with another coastal State).
⇨ (2) Within its EEZ, a coastal State has:
⇨ (a) sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing natural resources, whether living or nonliving, of the seabed and subsoil and the superjacent waters and with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents and winds;
⇨ (b) jurisdiction as provided for in international law with regard to the establishment and use of artificial islands, installations, and structures, marine scientific research, and the protection and preservation of the marine environment, and
⇨ (c) other rights and duties provided for under international law.
⇨ High Seas:
⇨ (1) The high seas are comprised of all parts of the sea that are not included in the exclusive economic zone, the territorial sea or the internal waters of a State, or in the archipelagic waters of an archipelagic State.
⇨ Initiatives Under the Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS):
⇨ (1) The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)
⇨ (2) The International Seabed Authority (ISA)
⇨ (3) The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS)
⇨ India and UNCLOS:
⇨ India has been a party to UNCLOS since 1995.
