Convened under the terms of resolution 3067 (XXVIII) adopted by the General meeting of the United Nations on November 16th 1973, the Third Conference of the United Nations on the Right of the Sea met for the first time at New York in December 1973.

Its work was completed in 1982 by the signature with Montego Bay (Jamaica) of the Convention of the United Nations on the Right of the Sea (CNUDM), or United Nations Convention one the Law Of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Convention is coming into effect on November 16th, 1994, after ratification or adhesion of 60 States. The European Community also signed it.

Convention specifies a certain number of concepts appeared in the common law (like the territorial Sea, the exclusive economic Zone, the continental shelf), and defines the general principles of the exploitation of the resources of the sea (alive resources, resources of the ground and the basement).

It also created the International court of the qualified right of the sea to know disagreements to which place the interpretation and the application of Convention could give.

The application of the CNDUM is followed by left periodic meetings of the States to Convention; the XVIIème meeting was held in New York in June 2007.

External bonds

• Text of Convention