Tenth Regional ITLOS Workshop In Nairobi
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea held its tenth regional workshop on 8 August 2014 in Nairobi, Kenya, on ‘The Role of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the Settlement of Disputes Relating to the Law of the Sea in Eastern and Southern Africa’. The workshop, which was organised in co-operation with the Korea Maritime Institute (KMI) and with the assistance of the Kenyan authorities, was attended by representatives of seven States from the region: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania. Representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme and the Southwest Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission also attended the workshop.
The workshop’s objective was to familiarise the participants with the mechanism for dispute settlement established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and with the jurisdiction of the Tribunal. The programme included an introduction to the procedure for bringing cases before the Tribunal and sessions on advisory proceedings, provisional measures, prompt release of vessels and crews and maritime delimitation cases. During the workshop, presentations were made by vice-president Hoffmann, Judges Wolfrum and Paik, and Registrar Gautier. The presentations were followed by question and answer sessions.
The workshop was opened by Judge Hoffmann, vice-president of the Tribunal. On that occasion, statements were also made by Ambassador A. Abbas, Acting Political and Diplomatic secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Kenya, and Mr Ki-Jun You, deputy Head of Mission, Korean Embassy in Nairobi.
Earlier workshops have been held in Dakar, Kingston, Libreville, Singapore, Bahrain, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Fiji and Mexico City. The next workshop is scheduled to be held in Accra, Ghana. The workshops are an integral part of the Tribunal’s promotion of knowledge about the Convention and its dispute settlement procedures, which includes a capacity-building and training programme on dispute settlement under the Convention (for young government officials and researchers, organized in cooperation with the Nippon Foundation), the Tribunal’s internship programme and the annual Summer Academy organised by the International Foundation for the Law of the Sea and held on the Tribunal’s premises in Hamburg, Germany.
