Summary
On Monday, 10 July, the fourth session of the Preparatory Committee on the elements of a draft text of an international legally binding instrument (ILBI) under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) opened with the plenary addressing administrative matters and hearing general statements. In the afternoon, the informal working group on marine genetic resources (MGRs), facilitated by Janine Coye-Felson (Belize), convened to discuss scope, guiding principles and approaches, access and benefit-sharing.
IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, has provided daily web coverage, daily reports, and a summary and analysis report from the 4th Session of the Preparatory Committee Established by the UN General Assembly Resolution 69/292: Development of an International Legally Binding Instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. The summary and analysis report is now available in HTML and PDF.
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Chair Carlos Sobral Duarte, Brazil
Miguel de Serpa Soares, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and UN Legal Counsel, on behalf of UN Secretary-General António Guterres
Miguel de Serpa Soares, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and UN Legal Counsel, giving his opening address to PrepCom4
L-R: Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli, Director, UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (UNDOALOS); Miguel de Serpa Soares, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and UN Legal Counsel; Chair Carlos Sobral Duarte, Brazil; Alice Hicuburundi, UNDOALOS; and Charlotte Salpin, UNDOALOS
Alice Revell, New Zealand
Jane Chigiyal, Federated States of Micronesia
Horacio Sevilla-Borja, Ecuador, on behalf of the G-77/China
Sergey Leonidchenko, Russian Federation
Mehdi Remaoun, Algeria, on behalf of the African Group
John Brincat, EU
Marlene Moses, Nauru, on behalf of the Pacific Small Island Developing States
Teodoro Locsin Jr., the Philippines
Ma Xinmin, China
Ismail Raushan, Maldives, on behalf of Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)
Pablo Arrocha Olabuenaga, Mexico
Evan Bloom, US, making an intervention
Faiyaz Murshid Kazi, Bangladesh
Matthías Pálsson, Iceland
Michael Googan, Australia
Cristóbal Hernández Castillo, Chile
Juliette Babb-Riley, Barbados, on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
Rishy Bukoree, Mauritius
Alain Tellier, Canada
Florian Botto, Monaco
Carlos García Reyes, Guatemala
Kathryn Garforth, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Louise Kantrow, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
Ariel Hernán Troisi, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) -UNESCO
Kristina Gjerde, IUCN
Stefan Micallef, International Maritime Organization
Takehiro Nakamura, UN Environment
Peggy Kalas, High Seas Alliance
Gustavo Arévalo Castro, Comisión Permanente del Pacifico Sur (CPPS)
L-R: Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli, Director, UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (UNDOALOS); Janine Coye-Felson, Belize, Facilitator of the informal working group on marine genetic resources; and Charlotte Salpin, UNDOALOS
James Ndirangu Waweru, Kenya
Konrad Marciniak, EU
Rogelio Villanueva Jr., the Philippines
Delegates from the Federated States of Micronesia and Nauru consulting
L-R: Ma Xinmin, China, in a conversation with Evan Bloom, US
Delegates from the African Group