Main human uses of ocean areas and resources, impacts, and multiple scales of governance - Ocean Sustainability in the 21st Century - page 46

2.4.1 Global legal instruments
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was adopted by the
Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea on 10 December 1982 and entered
into force on 16 November 1994. UNCLOS is generally considered to reflect customary
law. UNCLOS establishes a framework for ocean governance, specifying the rights of states
within the various maritime zones but also their duties, including in relation to the sustain-
able management of marine living resources (Articles 116-119) and the protection and pre-
servation of the marine environment (Articles 192-212). UNCLOS lays down a compre-
hensive legal regime for the world's oceans and seas, establishing rules governing all uses of
the oceans and ocean resources (Kimball, 2005 ; Treves, 2010 ). The UNCLOS instrument is
discussed in more detail in Chapters 9 , 10 , and 11 of this topic.
In the 30 years since UNCLOS was adopted, the ocean has changed significantly, and,
as this chapter has shown, the impacts of human activities are now felt in the deepest and
most remote parts of the ocean (Gjerde, 2012 ). These changes will continue in the future,
with climate change and acidification, as well as new ocean uses, accelerating and cumulat-
ively impacting biodiversity. It is recognized that UNCLOS was a product of its time (Tladi,
2011 ) , and this leaves some significant gaps and weaknesses that undermine not only the
protection and preservation of the marine environment, but also the potential role of the
ocean for sustainable development for all (Gjerde, 2012 ) .
Inthisrespect, itshouldbenotedthattheUNGeneral Assembly (UNGA),astheglobal
policy framework providing comprehensive and cross-sectoral guidance on oceans and the
law of the sea matters, continues to keep abreast of, and pass resolutions on, topical and
emerging oceans issues. The UNGA adopts two resolutions annually, on oceans and the law
of the sea, and on sustainable fisheries. It has established a number of working groups to
assist it in its work, including the Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans
and the Law of the Sea(the Consultative Process); the ad hoc open-ended informal Working