Preparatory Meeting for the Ocean Conference: Our Oceans, Our Future: Partnering for the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14

The UN General Assembly will hold a two-day preparatory meeting for the Ocean Conference: Our Oceans, Our Future: Partnering for the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development). The preparatory meeting will convene from 15-16 February 2017, and will focus on the elements of the expected outcome document of the Conference (a ‘Call for Action’) and themes for the Conference’s partnership dialogues.

The meeting, which will take place at UN Headquarters in New York, will be chaired by the two co-facilitators for the preparatory process and intergovernmental consultations on the Call for Action, Álvaro Mendonça e Moura (Portugal), and Burhan Gafoor (Singapore).

Side events sponsored by governments, the UN system and other intergovernmental organizations, and Major Groups and other stakeholders will be organized from 14-16 February, in the margins of the official meetings.

The high-level UN Conference will take place on 5-9 June 2017, in New York, US, on the theme, ‘Our oceans, our future: partnering for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14.’ The Conference will coincide with World Oceans Day. It will be co-hosted by the Governments of Fiji and Sweden.

In Resolution 70/226 of 22 December 2015, the Assembly decided to convene the high-level Conference, and decided to consider, before the end of the 70th session of the General Assembly, the modalities of the Conference.

In Resolution 70/303 of 9 September 2016, the UN General Assembly requested the President to convene a two-day preparatory meeting in February 2017.

The Assembly also decided that the Conference will adopt: a concise, focused, intergovernmentally agreed declaration in the form of a ‘Call for Action’ to support the implementation of Goal 14; a report containing the Conference co-chairs’ summaries of the partnership dialogues; and a list of voluntary commitments for the implementation of Goal 14, to be announced at the Conference.

It also decided that the Conference will include, in addition to eight plenary meetings and a special event commemorating World Oceans Day, seven partnership dialogues. The partnership dialogues will take place in parallel with the plenary meetings, they will be interactive and multi-stakeholder in nature, and they will focus on recommendations to support the implementation of Goal 14. The UN Secretary-General has issued a background note including a proposal of themes for the partnership dialogues in preparation for discussions at the two-day preparatory meeting.

Following the preparatory meeting, the co-facilitators are requested to present a draft Call for Action by March 2017, taking into account the preparatory meeting discussions and other inputs.