NEW YORK, 11 August (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) — The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf held its sixty-fourth session at United Nations Headquarters, from 7 July to 8 August 2025. The plenary parts of the session were held from 14 to 18 July and from 28 July to 1 August. The remainder of the session was devoted to the technical examination of submissions at the premises of the Division, including geographic information systems laboratories and other technical facilities.
During the session, a minute of silence was held in remembrance of Harald Brekke (Norway), a founding member of the Commission who served for four terms of office from 1997 to 2012 and from 2023 to 2025, and made significant contributions to its work, including as a Vice-Chair of the Commission.
At the opening of the first plenary part of the session, the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, Elinor Hammarskjöld, addressed the Commission. She paid tribute to the memory of Mr. Brekke and highlighted salient developments at the thirty-fifth Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, including in relation to the conditions of service of the members of the Commission and the long-standing vacancy in the Commission. The United Nations Legal Counsel also provided information on the planned renovations to the building where the Commission conducts its work and reiterated that the Division would continue to strive to deliver high-quality support to the Commission within the available resources. She presided over the swearing in ceremony of the new member of the Commission, Mr. Stig-Morten Knutsen (Norway).
The submissions of the following coastal States were considered by the Commission and its subcommissions: Mauritius (Rodrigues Island); Palau (North Area); Portugal; Spain (Galicia); Namibia; Mozambique; Madagascar; Mexico (eastern polygon in the Gulf of Mexico); and Denmark (Southern Greenland), as well as revised submissions made by Brazil (Oriental and Meridional Margin); Cook Islands (Manihiki Plateau); and the Russian Federation (Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean).
The Commission approved recommendations in regard to the revised submission made by the Cook Islands concerning the Manihiki Plateau.
The Commission heard a presentation on the submission of Denmark (Southern Greenland), which was a repeat presentation made upon the request of the coastal State, and also heard a presentation by India on the amendment to its submission.
Underscoring the importance that submitting States attach to the work of the Commission, delegations were represented at the high level: the delegation of Denmark was headed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Greenland, Miningauk Kleist; the delegation of India was headed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, M. Ravichandran; the delegation of Palau was headed by the Minister of State (Foreign Affairs), Gustav N. Aitaro; and the delegation of the Russian Federation was headed by the Minister for Natural Resources and Environment, Alexander Kozlov.
Among other issues on the agenda of the Commission was the election of its officers for a term of office commencing on 16 December 2025 and expiring on 15 June 2028, given that the two-and-half-year term of office of the officers (Chair and Vice-Chairs) of the Commission will expire in December 2025 and that no plenary meetings with full conference services are scheduled for the sixty-fifth session. The Commission re-elected by acclamation Aldino Campos as its Chair. The Commission also re-elected David Cole Mosher and Michał Tomczak, and elected Ahmed Er Raji, Rajan Sivaramakrishnan and Ariel Hernán Troisi as its Vice-Chairs, by acclamation.
During the session, the Commission was informed about deliberations of the thirty-fifth Meeting of States Parties, held in June 2025, on matters concerning the Commission. The Commission also considered several communications addressed to it.
With regard to the trust fund for the purpose of facilitating the preparation of submissions to the Commission for developing States, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, and in compliance with article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the secretariat informed the Commission that the fund was functionally depleted and that the secretariat was not currently in a position to process further applications.
With regard to the request contained in General Assembly resolution 79/144 for the Secretary-General to develop and make available training courses to assist States in relation to the preparation, making and maintenance of submissions, as well as their consideration, the secretariat informed the Commission that as no earmarked voluntary trust fund contributions for such activities had been received as at 1 August 2025, the secretariat was not in a position to deliver on this mandate in 2025.
The Commission also continued its consideration of initiatives to enhance efficiency in its work, including the development of technical bulletins and templates for presentations and recommendations.
Further details on the sixty-fourth session will be available in the Statement of the Chairperson of the Commission (document CLCS/64/2).
The background press release on this session is available at https://press.un.org/en/2025/sea2234.doc.htm.
Background
Established pursuant to article 2 of annex II to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Commission makes recommendations to coastal States on matters related to the establishment of the outer limits of their continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured, based on information submitted by those coastal States. The recommendations are based on the scientific data and other material provided by coastal States in relation to the implementation of article 76 of the Convention and do not prejudice matters relating to the delimitation of boundaries between States with opposite or adjacent coasts or prejudice the position of States that are parties to a land or maritime dispute, or application of other parts of the Convention or any other treaties. The limits of the continental shelf established by a coastal State on the basis of the recommendations are final and binding. In the case of disagreement by a coastal State with the recommendations of the Commission, the coastal State shall, within a reasonable time, make a revised or new submission to the Commission.
Under rule 23 of its rules of procedure (Public and private meetings), the meetings of the Commission, its subcommissions and subsidiary bodies are held in private, unless the Commission decides otherwise.
As required under the rules of procedure of the Commission, the executive summaries of all the submissions, including all charts and coordinates, have been made public by the Secretary-General through continental shelf notifications circulated to Member States of the United Nations, as well as States parties to the Convention. The executive summaries are available on the Division’s website at: http://www.un.org/depts/los/clcs_new/clcs_home.htm. The summaries of recommendations adopted by the Commission are also available on the above-referenced website.
The Commission is a body of 21 experts in the field of geology, geophysics or hydrography serving in their personal capacities. Members of the Commission are elected for a term of five years by the Meeting of States Parties to the Convention having due regard to the need to ensure equitable geographical representation. Not fewer than three members shall be elected from each geographical region.
Currently, one seat on the Commission continues to be vacant owing to a lack of nominations from the Group of Eastern European States.
The Convention provides that the State party which submitted the nomination of a member of the Commission shall defray the expenses of that member while in performance of Commission duties. A voluntary trust fund for the purpose of defraying the cost of participation of the members of the Commission from developing countries has been established. It has facilitated the participation of several members of the Commission from developing countries in the sessions of the Commission.
The convening by the Secretary-General of the sessions of the Commission, with full conference services, including documentation, for the plenary parts of these sessions, is subject to approval by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The Assembly does so in its annual resolutions on oceans and the law of the sea, which also address other matters relevant to the work of the Commission and the conditions of service of its members.
For additional information on the work of the Commission see the website of the Division at: http://www.un.org/depts/los/index.htm. In particular, the most recent Statements by the Chair on the progress in the work of the Commission are available at: http://www.un.org/depts/los/clcs_new/commission_documents.
