23 May 2022
1 On behalf of Ambassador Rena Lee, the President of the Intergovernmental conference on an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, I have the honour of introducing draft decision A/76/L.46 on the convening of a fifth session of the conference.
2 In its resolution 72/249 of 24 December 2017, the General Assembly decided that the conference should initially meet for four sessions. The fourth session of the conference took place from 7 to 18 March 2022, after having been postponed twice due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of the fourth session, the conference considered that an additional session was required as soon as possible to make progress and requested the President of the conference to take the necessary steps to that end.
3 Draft decision A/76/L.46 is based on the recommendation of the conference, which was adopted by consensus. It proposes that the General Assembly decides to convene a fifth session of the confence for a period of ten working days in August 2022, with full conference services, including documentation, provision for parallel meetings and overtime, webcast, and press and meeting coverage, as required for the duration of the session.
4 We hope that the General Assembly will adopt this draft decision without a vote.
5 Thank you.
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