Election: Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf

As previously reported, the States Parties to Law of the Sea Convention gathered in New York on Thursday. The first substantive item on the agenda was the election of all 21 members of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. In UN elections, the composition of a body is typically allocated on the basis of regional groups. Such allocations, which are the subject of intense negotiations, are sometimes governed by a formal resolution (or similar document); at other times, they are controlled by informal understandings. For the Continental Shelf Commission, the States Parties informally agreed in 2002 to divide up membership as follows: Africa (4); Asia (6); Eastern Europe (3): Latin America and Caribbean (4); Western Europe and Others (4). And the Secretariat's note in preparation for the 2007 election pointed this out. At the current meeting, though, the States Parties decided to alter the 2002 understanding and shift one seat from Asia to Africa, thus giving Africa five members and Asia five members. This forced a contest for the fifth Asian seat, as the group had six candidates nominated (persons from China, Japan, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, and the Republic of Korea). It also reduced slightly the contest for the African seats, as the group had six candidates nominated (from Cameroon, Ghana, Mauritius, Nigeria, Seychelles, and Togo) for the (now) five seats. Of the other groups, only the WEOG had more candidates (6: from Australia, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom) than seats (4). In the end, the WEOG election (which lasted into a second day) pitted the nominees from Germany, Portugal, and the United Kingdom for the final seat. The Portuguese candidate was elected in the seventh round of voting. For Asia, the odd one out was Kuwait (losing in the first round), and for Africa it was Togo (which lost to Cameroon in the fourth round). All the Eastern European (Georgia, Romania, and Russia) and Latin American and Caribbean (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago) nominees were elected without difficulty. For the play-by-play, see here and here.