Bill to protect territorial integrity deferred to Special Select Committee

Oct 30, 2009 News

The Maritime Zones Bill of 2009 which is intended to replace the Maritime Boundary Act of 1977 has encountered an initial delay before its passage in the National Assembly after it was deferred to a Special Select Committee upon request by the opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and Alliance For Change.
The Bill is being piloted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Trade and Cooperation Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett who in her presentation to the House yesterday said that the Bill is geared at updating the current archaic law that is in place. According to the Foreign Affairs Minister, the proposed legislation is aimed at giving Guyana greater protection as it relates to its territorial integrity. The Minister pointed out that the legislation has been drafted since 2003 and was done in conjunction with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the United Nations and is also complicit with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). UNCLOS is the international agreement that resulted from the third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea, which took place from 1973 through 1982. The final document defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world’s oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources.
Guyana was the 60th state to sign the treaty in 1993 and to date, 158 countries and the European Community have joined in the Convention.
The convention sets the limit of various areas, measured from a carefully defined baseline such as internal waters, territorial waters, archipelagic waters, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and the continental shelf.
According to Rodrigues-Birkett, given the fact that there have been many policies and laws that changed and were enacted over the years, Guyana must safeguard its rights and put proper legislation in place.
She explained that many of the facets of the extant legislation have been retained in the proposed Bill but its scope has been greatly expanded.
The proposed provisions in the new law will, apart from demarcating boundary lines, also put measures in place for vessels travelling in and out of Guyana or just traversing.
It also caters for the protection of cultural heritage that may be submerged, subsoil resource among others.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds in his presentation to the House said that the legislation was timely, given the many advances made over the past decades as it relates to extracting resources from the subsoil, and their needs to be legislation to be in place to effectively protect and regulate the country’s interests.
The Foreign Affairs Minister did express her disappointment in the fact that the PNCR did not show up to offer their position on legislation that is of national importance.

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Bill to protect territorial integrity deferred to Special Select Committee

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