UN / HIGH SEAS
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: UN / HIGH SEAS AGREEMENT
TRT: 02:21
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 24 AUGUST 2022, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
24 AUGUST 2022, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais
3. Med shot, dais
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Maxine Burkett, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Fisheries and Polar Affairs, United States:
“While you know the high seas are vitally important, you also know that these areas are being increasingly threatened by a variety of stressors. The Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction or BBNJ is key to protecting the high seas ecosystems and tackling these challenges. It will allow us to work collaboratively across the global community to implement measures for conservation, as well as sustainable use of the high seas. Concluding this agreement will unlock myriad new opportunities for conservation and help us reach our goal of ensuring a healthy, sustainable ocean for generations to come.”
5. Close up, journalist
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Janine Coye Felson, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Belize:
“We're all connected. The ocean is our connector. What happens in one area impacts us in another area and the Caribbean and the Caribbean Community member states have invested a lot of diplomatic capital, a lot of research, and a lot of effort into ensuring that the agreement that we're able to adopt on Friday will be, as you said, effective in being able to conserve and sustainably use Marine Biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction and why? Because our livelihoods are directly dependent on the health of the ocean.”
7. Various shots, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jihyun Lee, Youth Ambassador High Seas Alliance:
“The water belongs to everyone, you, me and future generations. And for too long, we didn't admit that we've been doing abominable deeds to our oceans. And finally, a lot of our delegations, stakeholders, have come to realize and admit that something has been severely wrong on how we treat and manage our high seas, and are here to fix it. And this recognition must lead to legally binding robust and ambitious High Seas treaty at IGC5. There's still time to get the treaty done this week.”
9. Wide shot, press room dais
10. Wide shot, press room dais
Ahead of the adoption of the High Seas Treaty, expected to take place this Friday (26 Aug) a US official today (24 Aug) said “concluding this agreement will unlock myriad new opportunities for conservation and help us reach our goal of ensuring a healthy, sustainable ocean for generations to come.”
At a press encounter organized by the Permanent Observer for the International Union for Conservation of Nature to the United Nations, Maxine Burkett, who is the United States Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Fisheries and Polar Affairs, said, “while you know the high seas are vitally important, you also know that these areas are being increasingly threatened by a variety of stressors.”
Burkett said the Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) “will allow us to work collaboratively across the global community to implement measures for conservation, as well as sustainable use of the high seas.”
For her part, Belize Ambassador Janine Coye Felson said, “the Caribbean Community member states have invested a lot of diplomatic capital, a lot of research, and a lot of effort into ensuring that the agreement that we're able to adopt on Friday will be, as you said, effective in being able to conserve and sustainably use Marine Biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction and why? Because our livelihoods are directly dependent on the health of the ocean.”
Also speaking to journalists, the High Seas Alliance Youth Ambassador, Jihyun Lee, said, “he water belongs to everyone, you, me and future generations. And for too long, we didn't admit that we've been doing abominable deeds to our oceans. And finally, a lot of our delegations, stakeholders, have come to realize and admit that something has been severely wrong on how we treat and manage our high seas, and are here to fix it. And this recognition must lead to legally binding robust and ambitious High Seas treaty at IGC5.”
“There's still time to get the treaty done this week,” she added.
The Treaty, if adopted, would create a new body to enforce rules aimed at protecting 30 percent of the world's oceans by 2030.
In its resolution 72/249 of 24 December 2017, the General Assembly decided to convene an Intergovernmental Conference, under the auspices of the United Nations, to consider the recommendations of the Preparatory Committee established by resolution 69/292 of 19 June 2015 on the elements and to elaborate the text of an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, with a view to developing the instrument as soon as possible.
In accordance with resolution 72/249, the Conference held a three-day organizational meeting in New York, from 16 to 18 April 2018, to discuss organizational matters, including the process for the preparation of the zero draft of the instrument.
The first session was convened from 4 to 17 September 2018, the second session from 25 March to 5 April 2019 and the third session from 19 to 30 August 2019. The fourth session, which was postponed by decisions 74/543 and 75/570 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, was convened from 7 to 18 March 2022. A fifth session of the Conference is being convened from 15 to 26 August 2022 pursuant to General Assembly decision 76/564 (available as A/76/L.46).