On 22 January 2024 at UN Headquarters in New York, US, the Permanent Representative of Palau handed over to the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and UN Legal Counsel her country’s instrument of ratification of the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), known as the “high seas treaty.”

Along with the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA), the treaty is the third implementing agreement to the 1982 UNCLOS. It was formally adopted by governments on 19 June 2023, after nearly two decades of negotiations.

The BBNJ treaty’s overall objective is to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, for the present and in the long term, through effective implementation of the relevant provisions of the UNCLOS and further international cooperation and coordination. The Agreement provides for: specific measures for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction; specific modalities to establish, implement, and monitor those measures; and institutional arrangements to oversee the implementation of the Agreement and of these measures.

The Agreement has been open for signature since 20 September 2023. Eighty-three Member States and the EU have signed the treaty since. The Agreement will enter into force 120 days after the deposit of the 60th instrument of ratification, approval, acceptance, or accession. The UN Secretary-General is required to convene the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Agreement no later than one year after its entry into force.

According to a UN press release, the treaty “has the potential to introduce more integrated, holistic approaches to the management of ocean activities.” Through its effective and timely implementation, the Agreement “can make crucial contributions to addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, as well as to achieving ocean-related goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF).

On 16 January, principals of organizations participating in UN-Oceans – the UN system’s coordination mechanism on ocean and coastal issues – endorsed a statement of commitments to strengthen and promote coordination and coherence of UN system activities in relation to the BBNJ Agreement. These commitments include:

• promoting a better understanding of the Agreement and preparations for its entry into force;
• regular sharing of information on activities related to the Agreement, with a view to identifying possible areas for collaboration and synergy;
• exchanging experiences, best practices, tools, and methodologies; and
• considering organizing joint activities aimed at supporting States and regional economic integration organizations in relation to the Agreement and its complementarity with relevant legal instruments, frameworks, and bodies.

Addressing high-level representatives from across the UN system, Miguel de Serpa Soares, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and UN Legal Counsel, in his capacity as the focal point of UN-Oceans, said “it is essential to maintain momentum and build capacity where needed.” According to the UN, this momentum is reflected not only in the adoption of the BBNJ Agreement but also in the adoption of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies and the Kunming-Montreal GBF, and the ongoing negotiations towards an international legally binding agreement on plastic pollution, as well as future meetings and conferences such as the fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4) in May and the 2025 Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3).