Pacific Islands Law Officers Meeting 1994 Kitano Tusitala Hotel Apia, Western Samoa 11 - 13 October 1994 FFA Report 94/33 PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM FISHERIES AGENCY P.O.BOX 629 HONIARA SOLOMON ISLANDS TELEPHONE (677) 21124 FAX (677) 23995 WEB http://www.ffa.int PACIFIC ISLAND LAW OFFICERS MEETING 1994 KITANO TUSITALA HOTEL APIA, WESTERN SAMOA 11 - 13 OCTOBER 1994 REPORT BY THE SOUTH PACIFIC FORUM FISHERIES AGENCY 1. The South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency wishes to express its gratitude to PILOM and the host country for the invitation to be present at this year’s meeting. The Agency has maintained in the past that PILOM is an important regional meeting and as evidenced since the last meeting in Nauru, PILOM has played a vital role for legal advisers in the regional through its training programmes. The Agency welcomes and appreciates the opportunity to present a report of its work programme to senior law officers from the region. 2. The report will attempt to briefly highlight some of the major legal developments that have taken place in the past twelve months with regard to fisheries in the South Pacific region. As all of you are aware, fisheries is an important resource to all the countries of the region. Fisheries is a source of revenue for all the governments of the region but more important, it is protein for the people of the region. The Agency in its report to this meeting last year in Nauru, advised that PILOM will be kept informed of the developments of United Nations Conference on Straddling Fish and Highly Migratory.Fish Stocks. UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON STRADDLING FISH STOCKS AND HIGHLY MIGRATORY FISH STOCKS 3. As reported to this meeting last year, the dominant event has been the United Nations Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks. The Conference has continued to hold centre stage in legal developments for the region. Representatives from Australia, New Zealand, FSM, Marshall Islands, Tonga, Kiribati, Fiji, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Western Samoa. The Legal Counsel of FFA continues to provide assistance to delegations from the region and represented the Agency in the two sessions of 1994. 4. The Agency, in preparation for the Second Session of the Conference, co-ordinated an FFA Inter-sessional working Group in January 26 -28 1994, to consider a regional strategy. The Working Group of technical and legal advisers produced a supplementary negotiating brief for FFA member countries which presented an analysis of the Chairman’s Negotiating Text and proposed negotiating positions on key issues before the Conference. A record of proceedings is collated into an FFA Report 94/6. 5. The Second Session of the Conference was held on 14 - 31 March 1994. Law officers were included in delegations from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, FSM and Solomon Islands. The Conference discussions focused on the Chairman’s Negotiating Text. The substantive and detailed provisions of the Text were severely attacked by DWFNs and the South Pacific delegations worked at defending these provisions by adopting a non-confrontational and constructive approach to the discussions. The Chairman provided a revised version of the Text that would form the basis for FFA/rept/PILOM 94 discussions at the August session. For FFA delegations, it became clear that certain vital issues such as the form of the outcome of the Conference, had to be addressed in the next session. 6. The Third Session of the Conference was held in New York on 15 - 26 August 1994. Delegations from Australia, New Zealand, FSM, Fiji, Cook Islands, Marshall Islands and Papua New Guinea included legal advisers. The work of the group was again co-ordinated by the Legal Counsel, as in the Second Session in March, with the assistance of the Deputy Director. 7. As expected, the issue of the form of outcome dominated the proceedings. The FFA member countries agreed, after discussions with other delegations to the Conference, to support a legally- binding outcome. The decision to support a legally-binding outcome was made only after exhaustive consultations and after taking the view that no other options existed which would secure the sort of outcomes that FFA member countries desired. In particular, there was a strong feeling that certain key issues, such as dispute settlement, could not be progressed any further until a decision was reached on the form of the outcome. Although none of the distant water fishing nations spoke in support of a legally binding outcome, it became apparent that a legally-binding convention would be the likely outcome of the Conference. 8. The Conference agreed to recommend to the General Assembly of the United Nations the convening of two further sessions of the Conference in April and July 1995. Although a detailed analysis of the draft agreement has not been provided to member countries of FFA, a set of recommendations for further actions has been forwarded to member countries to study closely and to make appropriate comments. The Agency undertakes to continue to inform this meeting of further developments of the Conference. MULTILATERAL TREATY WITH THE UNITED STATES 9. Since the last PILOM meeting, all the member countries have accepted amendments to the Annexes of the Treaty and ratified the amendments to the Internal Agreement among Pacific Island Parties to the Treaty. This has enabled the Agency to pay out full entitlements to the Parties received from the United States under the new arrangement. The licensing period under the Treaty is 12 months and runs from June to June of each year. The Treaty is therefore in its 7 licensing period. 10. As of 30 September 1994, there are 47 US vessels licensed under the Treaty. There are 50 licences available to US vessels. 11. Annual consultations of the Parties to the Treaty were held in Nadi, Fiji in March 1994. The Pacific Island Parties continue to benefit from an increased financial by the Government of the United States and tuna industry. The Administrator (Director of FFA) continues to administer the unspent balances available under the Economic Development Fund (EDF) and the Technical Assistance Fund (TA) established during the first five years of operation of the Treaty. CONVENTION FOR THE PROHIBITION OF FISHING WITH LONG DRIFTNETS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC 12. The Convention for the Prohibition of Fishing with Long Driftnets in the South Pacific, commonly known as the Wellington Convention was opened for signature on 29 November 1989 and entered into force on 17 May 1991. Protocols I and II were adopted and opened for signature on 20 October 1990. The depositary for the Convention is the Government of New Zealand. 13. The Convention has been signed by 14 FFA member countries, the most recent being Fiji in August 1993. Of those, 9 member countries have ratified the Convention. However, so far, only Australia, Cook Islands, Marshall Islands New Zealand, Tokelau, Vanuatu and Tuvalu have passed domestic legislation implement provisions of the Wellington Convention. Table I shows the current status of the Wellington Convention. (Information provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Wellington, New Zealand) Table I: Status of Wellington Convention as at 30 September Pag e NIUE TREATY ON CO-OPERATION IN FISHERIES SURVEILLANCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC REGION 14. The Niue Treaty was opened for signature at Honiara on 9 July 1992. It was signed by all FFA member countries with the exceptions of Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Tokelau. Kiribati, Tokelau and Papua New Guinea signed the Treaty at FFC23 at Palau in May 1993. Fiji signed on 12 August 1993. As at 30 September 1994, 8 countries have deposited instruments of ratifications with the Government of Niue. Table 2 shows the current status of the Niue Treaty. (Information provided by the Government of Niue) Table 2: Status of Niue Treaty as at 30 September 1994 Date of Signature Date of Ratification Australia 9-July-92 3-Sept-93 FFA/rept/PILOM 94 Pag e Cook Islands 9-July-92 3-Mar-93 Federated States of Micronesia 9-July-92 3-Dec-93 Fiji 11-Aug-93 Kiribati 11-May-93 Marshall Islands 9-July-92 Nauru 9-July-92 30-Sept-92 New Zealand 9-July-92 Niue 9-July-92 9-Mar-93 Palau 9-July-92 Papua New Guinea 11-May-93 Solomon Islands 9-July-92 27-May-94 Tokelau 11-May-93 Tonga 9-July-92 20-May-93 Tuvalu 9-July-92 Vanuatu 9-July-92 10-Nov-93 Western Samoa 9-July-92 THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF THE SEA 15. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was opened for signature on 10 December 1982, at Montego Bay, Jamaica. The Convention marked the end of an era of freedom of the seas; introducing a comprehensive legal framework governing all aspects of mankind’s use of the sea, seabed and the living and non-living resources thereof. On 16 November 1993, Guyana deposited the 60th instrument of ratification with the United Nations, thus becoming bringing the Convention into force on 16 November 1994, being one year after the deposit of the 60th instrument of ratification. 16. Of FFA member countries, only Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands have ratified or acceded to the Convention, although Australia, Cook Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Western Samoa are signatories and Palau is a signatory to the Final Act of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea by virtue of its status as a trust territory of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.