I am delighted to present to you the Annual Report of the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority for 2022. The report provides an overview of the activities of the Authority since July 2021 and an update on the status of implementation of the strategic directions of the Authority for 2019-2023.
I wish to thank the Members of the Authority for their continued support and commitment, which has enabled meaningful progress to be made to implement ISA’s responsibilities.
Mr. Michael W. Lodge
Secretary-General, ISA
ABOUT THIS REPORT
The Secretary-General Annual Report is presented in two parts. A first part (ISBA/27/A/2) has been published as an official document of the Assembly and reports on the status of UNCLOS and related legal instruments, the status of contributions to the budget of ISA and the status of the Area. The report also summarizes the outcomes of the previous session of ISA. This first part also contains a review of the status of implementation of ISA Strategic Plan 2019-2023, its related performance indicators and the status of the high-level actions and associated outputs assigned to the secretariat under the ISA High-Level Action Plan, adopted by the Assembly in 2019.
The second part of this report has been issued in a graphical format and is subtitled “Ensuring the sustainable management and stewardship of the deep seabed and its resources for the benefit of humankind”. It documents all the activities of ISA between July 2021 and June 2022. The graphical report will be available in the working languages of the Authority: English and French.
Both ISBA/27/A/2 and the graphical report should be read together.
ISA AT A GLANCE
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is an autonomous international organization established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 1994 Agreement, which was adopted to bring the regime of the deep seabed closer in line with political and economic realities. ISA is the organization through which States Parties to UNCLOS organize and control all activities related to mineral resources in the international seabed area (the Area). The Area effectively covers more than 50 per cent of the world’s oceans’ seabed. The Area and its resources are the common heritage of humankind, on behalf of which ISA acts. At the core of ISA’s mandate is the need to ensure the effective protection of the marine environment from harmful effects that may arise from deep-seabed related activities in the Area.
