International Organizations and the Law of the Sea

Book excerpt: Now in its eighth year, the NILOS Documentary Yearbook provides the reader with an excellent collection of documents related to ocean affairs & the law of the sea, issued each year by organizations, organs & bodies of the United Nations system. Documents of the UN General Assembly, ECOSOC & its regional Commissions, the UN Secretary-General's Informal Consultations, PrepCom ISA/ITLOS, UNCED, UNEP & UNCTAD are included first, followed by the documents of specialized agencies & other autonomous organizations of the UN system, including FAO, IAEA, ILO, IMO, UNESCO/IOC & WMO. As in the previous volumes, documents which were issued in the course of 1992 are reproduced, while other relevant documents are listed. In view of the explosive proliferation of developments as a result of the UNCED, Volume 8 contains a Special Report by co-editor Barbara Kwiatkowska on the Ocean-Related Impact of Agenda 21 on International Organizations of the UN System in Follow-Up to the Rio Summit . For the reader's convenience, a Chronological Table of Selected Ocean-Related Post-Rio UN Meetings & Conferences up to the year 2000 is annexed to this Special Report. An extensive Index of Keywords facilitates access by the reader to the complex matters dealt with by organizations covered by the Yearbook , as well as to the information concerning individual states, regions & international instruments. The editors have been guided in the preparation of this unique collection by several outstanding experts, members of the Yearbook's Advisory Board, including the Yearbook 's inventor Ambassador Shabtai Rosenne, & Judge Andres Aguilar Mawdsley, Edward Brown, Günther Jaenicke, Douglas Johnston, Lee Kimball, Thomas Mensah, Judge Shigeru Oda, Francisco Orrego Vicuna, Tullio Treves. The NILOS Documentary Yearbook has proved to be of invaluable assistance in facilitating access by the community of scholars & practitioners in ocean affairs & the law of the sea to essential documentation. The entry into force of the 1992 UN Law of the Sea Convention on 16th November 1994 & progress in the implementation of Chapter 17 of Agenda 21, make continuation of this assistance of particular significance in the years to come.