First Filipino Member of UN Body on Law of the Sea Wraps Up Session in New York

NAMRIA Deputy Administrator Efren P. Carandang hands over the signed copy of the solemn declaration to Mr. Vladimir Jares, Director of the Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs at the commencement of the session of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK – Filipino expert Efren P. Carandang, as the first Filipino member of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), concluded his participation in the fifty-eighth session of the CLCS from 5 July to 22 August 2023 held in-person at the United Nations Headquarters. 

This is the first session of the sixth term of office of the CLCS following the election of its members at the thirty-second Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in June 2022.

Mr. Carandang is Deputy Administrator of the National Mapping and Resource Information Agency (NAMRIA), the Philippines’ primary government agency for geospatial information management and services. Elected in June 2022, Mr. Carandang will serve the CLCS until 2028. He won a seat in the Asia-Pacific Group of the CLCS for the term 2023-2028.  He is among the 19 members currently serving their term of office of five years.

The CLCS is composed of 21 experts in the field of geology, geophysics or hydrography.  They serve in their personal capacities.  Members of CLCS are elected for a term of five years by the Meeting of States Parties to the Convention from among their nationals having due regard to the need to ensure equitable geographical representation.  Not fewer than three members shall be elected from each geographical region.

Established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the CLCS makes recommendations to coastal States on matters related to the establishment of the outer limits of their continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured, based on information submitted to it by coastal States.  These recommendations are based on the scientific and technical data and other material provided by States consistent with UNCLOS.

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