Dear IBRU and int-boundaries colleagues,

Please find below the Programme of the Open Meeting of the
CLCS to be held in New York, Monday, 1 May 2000, which might
be of interest to you.

Instructions for those experts interested to attend are listed
at the end in the long footnote prepared by the Division of
Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS) of the UN.

Sincerely,

Galo Carrera
Convener, CLCS Open Meeting
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    Programme of the Open Meeting of the
    Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf */

    1 May 2000, Trusteeship Council
    UN Headquarters, New York

    "UNCLOS and the delineation of the continental shelf:
     Opportunities and challenges for States"

1. 10:00-10:15 Opening Statement by the Chairman (Yuri Kazmin)

2. 10:15-10:45 The United Nations Convention on the Law of the
               Sea and delineation of the outer limits of the
                continental shelf (Harald Brekke)

3. 10:45-11:00 Questions and answers

4. 11:00-11:30 The mandate and work of the Commission on the
                Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) (Peter Croker)

5. 11:30-11:45 Questions and answers

6. 11:45-12:15 Modus Operandi of the CLCS (Samuel Betah, speaker,
                in collaboration with Andre Chan Chim Yuk)

7. 12:15-12:30 Questions and answers

8. 12:30-13:00 Discussion

9. 13:00-15:00 Lunch

10.15:00-15:45 Scientific and Technical Guidelines of the Commission
                on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (Osvaldo Astiz,
                K. R. Srinivasan and Mladen Juracic, speakers, in
                collaboration with Galo Carrera)
          15:00-15:15  Chapters 1 to 3 (Astiz and Carrera)
          15:15-15:30  Chapters 4 to 6 (Srinivasan and Carrera)
          15:30-15:45  Chapters 7 to 9 (Juracic and Carrera)

11.15:45-16:00 Questions and answers

12.16:00-16:45 Geographic scope and scientific challenges posed by
                article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the
                Law of the Sea (Galo Carrera)

13.16:45-17:00 Questions and answers

14.17:00-17:45 An outline for the preparation of a national submission
                to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
                (Galo Carrera and Alexandre Albuquerque)

*/ Due to the nature of its mandate, the Commission on the Limits
of the Continental Shelf generally meets in closed session. Its major
task is to consider data and information, sometimes confidential,
which will be submitted by coastal States to the Commission. However,
one of the Commission's other functions is to provide assistance to
States in the preparation of their submissions. As the Commission
has received numerous queries both from States and from scientific
sources, it eventually decided to hold an Open Meeting for one day
during its next session.

The Open Meeting is intended to accomplish several purposes:
to familiarize States with the necessity to implement the provisions
of article 76 and annex II to the Convention within ten years from
the entry into force of the Convention for that State if it intends
to establish the outer limit of its continental shelf beyond 200
nautical miles; and to explain to policymakers and legal advisors
what benefits the coastal States may derive from implementing the
provisions of article 76. There are more than 30 States that appear
to meet the legal and geographic requirements to take advantage of
those provisions.

The Meeting will endeavour to explain to the experts in marine
sciences and individuals from academia how the Commission considers
that the Scientific and Technical Guidelines should be applied in
practice.

The Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea has received
a number of inquiries as to the arrangements necessary to attend
the Open Meeting.

Experts interested in attending the Open Meeting may wish to contact
the relevant authorities in their own country, or in the country for
which they may be involved in preparation of a submission to the
Commission, as to the arrangements for attending this Meeting.

Those who will not be part of a group attending through their
government may contact the Secretariat of the Commission at the
Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea by 15 April 2000
to express their interest. The Secretariat will try to arrange
visitor's passes subject to the limitations of seating in the
Trusteeship Council Chamber.

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  Galo Carrera                Honorary Consul
  [log in to unmask]        Consulate of Mexico in Nova Scotia
  Phone: (902) 466-3678       53 Hawthorne Street
  Fax:   (902) 466-3678       Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
                              Canada B2Y 2Y7
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