On February 25, Monsignor Tomasz Grysa, Head of the Delegation of the Holy See to the First Part of the 25th Session of the Council of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), gave the general statement of the Holy See at the Session taking place at the headquarters of the ISA in Kingston, Jamaica.
 
In his remarks, Monsignor Grysa congratulated the ISA on the progress it has recently made with regard to regulatory, financial, technical, social and environmental challenges and offered three observations with regard to the development of standards, guidelines and key concepts. First, he emphasized that guidelines and process standards are not legally binding and therefore should not occasion objection on the part of various delegations. Second, he recommended that the performance standards involve strengthening of the ISA’s Legal and Technical Commission, be modeled after the procedures and methods of the UN Commission on International Trade Law, and take advantage of experts from various Secretariats of the ISA. Third, he suggested that guidelines with regard to royalties should be made by the ISA Council instead of the ISA Secretary General. He also reiterated the Holy See’s recommendation that every action of the ISA should flow from a responsibilities based approach, rather than a rights based approach, which better serves to conserve the oceans and use its resources in a sustainable way for the benefit of all mankind.

The statement can be found here.