Fish
in High Seas
Subject of
Friday Night
Fight at UN,
Consensus
Reached
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 24 --
After late
Friday night
negotiations,
consensus was
reached to
begin
negotiating
the first UN
treaty to
conserve marine
biological
diversity
in ocean areas
beyond
national
jurisdiction.
The document
will be
published and
voted on in
the UN General
Assembly.
But how did it
come about, at
the end?
On the morning
of Friday,
January 23
things did not
look good. The
larger group
took over
Conference
Room 5 in the
UN basement,
with a
hundred-some
seat; the
Group of 77
repaired to
smaller
Conference
Room 8. (The
Security
Council was in
a closed
meeting in
Room 7 about
human rights
and
peacekeeping;
some UN-based
reporters were
lured
into a meeting
feigning a
fight for
access,
leadership engaged
in censorship).
Inner City
Press spoke
with different
sides of the
oceans debate,
some
expressing
frustration
not only at
big power but
also seafaring
(and fishing)
countries like
Iceland and
Argentina. It
came down to a
showdown in
Conference
Room 5, while
upstairs in
the Delegates
Lounge new
contractor
Culinart
served up
drinks.
Surprising to
many of those
involved,
longtime Sri
Lanka
ambassador
Palitha Kohona
was in the
mix, even
after the
defeat of
“his”
president
Mahinda
Rajapaksa and
investigation
of Gotabaya
Rajapaksa for
media murder.
Kohona was head
of the UN's
Treaty Division,
so there's
that.
Jamaica's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
was in the
house, and
South Africa
now speaking
for the Group
of 77, having
taken over
from Bolivia.
First the rub
was Paragraph
7; then it
shifted back
to Paragraph 6
bis, about not
undermining
the Law of the
Sea and other
related
instruments.
Versions was
projected on
the wall; the
phrase
“nothing is
agreed until
everything is
agreed” was
deployed.
And finally,
though less
than advocate
wanted, this
agreement to
negotiated was
reached. And
so it goes at
the UN.
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