Kenya Elected to International Seabed Authority Council
Kenya has been elected to the Council of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), according to KDRTV, joining the governing body that oversees human activity on the world’s ocean floor in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
The International Seabed Authority is an intergovernmental organisation established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which entered into force in 1994. Headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica, the ISA regulates exploration and prospective exploitation of mineral resources — including polymetallic nodules, seafloor massive sulphides and cobalt-rich crusts — on the seabed and in the subsoil beyond the limits of any state’s exclusive economic zone, an area it terms “the Area.”
The Council is the Authority’s executive organ, with 36 members distributed across five groups reflecting different categories of state interest: major consumers of seabed minerals, large investors in deep-sea activity, states with special interests such as those hosting major land-based mineral industries, developing states with seabed-related interests, and members chosen to ensure equitable geographic distribution. Members are elected for four-year terms by the ISA Assembly, the body’s supreme organ in which all parties to UNCLOS are represented.
Kenya, an East African state with a coastline of more than 500 kilometres along the Indian Ocean, ratified UNCLOS in 1989 and has participated in the work of the Authority for several decades. The country has signalled a growing interest in the blue economy and in marine scientific research, areas that overlap directly with the ISA’s mandate. Election to the Council gives Nairobi a direct role in shaping decisions on exploration contracts, the development of the deep-sea mining code that has been under negotiation for more than a decade, and the protection of the marine environment in international waters. The newly elected members are expected to take their seats at the next session of the Council in Kingston.
Sources
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