High Seas Treaty

Current Context : The Indian government would soon sign and ratify the High Seas Treaty, a new international legal architecture for maintaining the ecological health of the oceans.

• This agreement is known as Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions (BBNJ).
• The Ministry of Earth Sciences will spearhead the country’s implementation of Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions (BBNJ) agreement.

ABOUT HIGH SEA

• High seas are areas outside the national jurisdiction of any country because of which the treaty is also known as the agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions (BBNJ).
• It is formally called the Agreement on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.
• It is an international treaty under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
• The high seas provide invaluable ecological, economic, social and food security benefits to humanity and are in need of urgent protection.
• The high seas begin at the border of countries’ exclusive economic zones, which extend up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from coastlines. They thus fall under the jurisdiction of no country.

ABOUT UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE LAWS OF THE SEA (UNCLOS)

• It is an international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), which took place between 1973 and 1982.
• The Convention, concluded in 1982, replaced four 1958 treaties.
• UNCLOS came into force in 1994.
• It has been ratified by 168 parties (167 States + EU).