30 negotiators from 25 different countries had an informal meeting on BBNJ in Utrecht

Alex Oude Elferink, Erik Molenaar and Catherine Blanchard, Utrecht University participated in the organisation of an informal meeting on the rights and obligations of coastal States and other States in the BBNJ Implementing Agreement, which took place in Utrecht on 10 and 11 February 2020. The BBNJ is the treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. This is UN treaty that is drafted.

This informal meeting was an opportunity for over 30 negotiators from 25 different countries involved in the negotiations of the BBNJ Implementing agreement to discuss the specific issue of rights of coastal States and other States, in preparation for the last meeting of the intergovernmental conference to be held at the UN Headquarters in New York at the end of March.

The informal meeting was hosted in collaboration with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The meeting was opened by Henk Kummeling, the Rector Magnificus of Utrecht University. Alex Oude Elferink, and Joanna Mossop of the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand each gave a presentation to the meeting in relation to the legal issues of relevance to considering the topic, while Erik Molenaar moderated a part of the meeting.