Context: India will enact a new law to safeguard its interests in international ocean waters following the finalisation of the High Seas Treaty in 2023.

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• The Ministry of Earth Sciences has set up a 12-member drafting committee headed by Supreme Court Senior Advocate Sanjay Upadhyay, to prepare the contours of the new law in accordance with the provisions of the new treaty.

• These international waters, which constitute about 64% of ocean areas, are considered global commons and are currently free for any kind of activity by any country.

• These waters are home to about 2.2 million marine species, and they offer essential ecological, economic, cultural, and scientific benefits.

About the High Seas Treaty

• The High Seas Treaty or the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement seeks to curb pollution and excessive resource extraction, while promoting efforts for sustainable use of biodiversity and other marine resources. 

• It is the third implementing agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

• The earlier two implementing agreements under it are: 1) Agreement on deep seabed mining (1994); 2) UN Fish Stocks Agreement (1995). 

• It was adopted by the UN General Assembly in June 2023 and opened for signature in September 2023.

• Objectives:

• Protect marine biodiversity in the high seas through demarcating Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
• Sustainable use of marine genetic resources (MGRs) and equitable sharing of benefits arising from them.
• Mandate Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for major activities in the high seas.

• The Treaty deals only with oceans that are outside the national jurisdiction of any country, i.e., beyond the EEZs.

• The Treaty will enter into force 120 days after 60 countries have ratified and submitted their ratification documents. So far, 55 countries have ratified the treaty. 

• India signed the Treaty in September 2024 but has not ratified it yet. 

About UNCLOS

• Adopted in 1982, it is an international treaty that defines nations’ rights and responsibilities in the use of the world’s oceans.

• It defines different maritime zones such as territorial sea (up to 12 nautical miles), contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone (up to 200 nautical miles), continental shelf, and the high seas, clarifying state sovereignty and rights in each zone.

• The treaty established key bodies, including the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) for dispute resolution, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to regulate seabed mining, and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) to define continental shelf boundaries.