The Caribbean Sea Commission (CSC): defining the 'Special Area'

摘要

The Caribbean Sea Commission (CSC) was established by the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in 2007, as a structured mechanism to promote the sustainable development of the Caribbean Sea (Association of Caribbean States 2007, 2). Chief among its mandates is the elaboration of the Caribbean Sea Initiative (CSI)-the proposal tabled by Member States of the ACS at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1999, calling for designation of the Caribbean Sea, as a 'special area,' within the context of sustainable development. The CSI envisaged governance of the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) "not by reference to any single mode of use or abuse of that sub-oceanic basin, but within the comprehensive context of sustainable development" (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean 2002, 1). It was informed by various Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), including the United Nations Programme of Action on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, known as the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA), and its Paragraph 25 on oceans; as well as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), specifically its Article 123 on cooperation among coastal States, bordering semi-enclosed seas (ibid).