Tetouan – UN member countries signed a milestone treaty yesterday to protect international waters.

Known as the Agreement 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 (BBNJ Agreement), or the High Seas Treaty, the document seeks to especially protect marine wildlife by establishing a legal framework around harmful practices like deep-sea mining and overfishing.

Morocco was the 60th country to sign the treaty, while Sierra Leone was the 61st and final country to sign the document.

UN member nations made a commitment in June of 2023 to establish “legally binding rules to conserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity, share benefits from marine genetic resources more fairly, create protected areas, and strengthen scientific cooperation and capacity building.  The agreement is the ultimate manifestation of this commitment.

Concerns persist over enforcement

International waters account for nearly two-thirds of the ocean and nearly half of the Earth’s surface.

These waters are notoriously lawless, AP reported, quoting Johan Berganas, senior vice president of Oceans of the World Wildlife Fund, as saying that they have been called “the world’s largest crime scene — they’re unmanaged, unenforced, and a regulatory legal structure is absolutely necessary.”

The treaty is crucial as it established a legal framework that lies beyond the jurisdiction of individual countries.

Though the ratification is promising, there are still concerns over the enforcement of these binding laws, and the treaty will not take effect until next year. And though some of the world’s superpowers – the US, China, Russia, and Japan – have engaged in preparatory talks, they have yet to ratify.

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