Territorial Waters
A resolution to restrict political freedoms in the interest of law and order.
Category: Political Stability
Strength: Mild
Proposed by: Cobdenia
Description: REALISING the current possibility for nations to claim vast swathes of oceanic territory for legal and economic reasons,
CONCERNED that such a situation has the potential to destabilise international security,
SEEKING to remedy this situation, whilst taking into account the necessity for nations to impose legal and economic jurisdiction over waters bordering their shores,
The United Nations hereby,
1. DECLARES that, for any nation with a coast:
a) The waters within 12 nautical miles of that nation's sea border should normally be counted as its 'Territorial Water', over which the nation shall have sovereign control and may enforce any and all laws of the nation in question. Waters above undersea nations are to be considered territorial in addition to those extending beyond the sea border;
b) All of the waters within 200NM of that nation’s sea border should normally be counted as its ‘Exclusive Economic Zone', within which it has the sole right to harvest natural resources, but otherwise considered as international waters;
c) All of these zones also include the floors of those waters.
2. PROCLAIMS that waters that are neither territorial nor within the exclusive economic zone be considered 'International Waters';
a) National jurisdiction is to be extended to vessels registered in that nation traversing, and on offshore installations located in, international waters and the exclusive economic zone;
b) Nations are prohibited from intentionally placing devises that may hazard shipping indiscriminately in international waters, including but not limited to sea mines.
3. AUTHORISES that the sea border is to be considered to be at the point where waters meets the land at low tide, where such a border would exist at sea level in the case of undersea nations, or an estimation of where fresh water meets salt water where the coastline is disrupted by river, etc., mouths,
4. DECLARES that any waters bordered by a single nation’s shores shall are to be considered as that nations territorial waters;
5. NOTES that possible issues of overlapping claims be resolved as follows:
a) The boundaries between the territorial waters of nations that adjoin each other on coasts shall normally be straight-line continuations of their land borders;
b) Any waters where two or more nations’ claims would overlap shall be divided along lines mid-way between those two nations’ shores;
c) Nations with overlapping claims may voluntarily agree to divisions along other lines than these, as long as they are not to the detriment of the claims of other nations and do not encroach onto international waters;
d) Where two nations’ shores are less than 25NM, and greater then 2NM, apart a median channel of 1 NM width shall be between them, and will be treated as international waters, except in the case of archipelagic nations.
6. ENCOURAGES member nations to respect these rules in their interactions with non-UN member nations that also accept these limits, and reach similar agreements with non-members,
7. FOUNDS the Marine Arbitration & Recognised International Thalassic Institutional Management Executive, (MARITIME), and charges it to arbitrate in international disputes about territorial claims in the seas and national jurisdiction.
Voting Ends: Fri Jan 18 2008
