The Third United Nations Conference on the Oceans is being held in Nice, France, a city on the Mediterranean, from 9-13 June 2025. The Conference aims to accelerate "action and mobilize all actors to conserve and sustainably use the oceans" according to Li Junhua, head of the U.N. Department of Economic and Socail Affairs who is Secretary-General of the Conference. He added "The future of the ocean is not predetermined. It will be shaped by the decisions and actions that we are making now."
The organizers of the Conference hope that the Conference will develop a "Nice Action Plan for the Ocean" which would set out the steps necessary to halt the current erosion of biodiversity and predatory fishing.
Alongside the Conference there is being held the "One Ocean Science Congress" bringing together researchers and scientists - a good example of scientific cooperation across current political divides.
There was drafted and set out for ratification in 2023 an important treaty on "Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction." However there are not yet enough ratifications for the Treaty to enter into force. The organizers of the Conference on the Oceans hope that the Conference will mobilize energy so that more states ratify the Biodiversity Treaty so that it comes into force. 40 more states are needed to ratify for the treaty to come into force.
The Association of World Citizens has long been concerned with the Law of the Sea and had been active during the 10-year negotiations on the law of the sea during the 1970s, the meetings being held one month a year, alternatively in New York and Geneva. The World Citizen position for the law of the sea was largely based on a three-point framework:
a) that the oceans and seas were the common heritage of humanity and should be seen as a living symbol of the unity of humanity;
b) that ocean management should be regulated by world law;
c) that the wealth of the oceans considered as the common heritage of mankind should contain mechanisms of global redistribution, especially the development of the poorest.
While the Convention on the Law of the Sea has not revolutionized world politics - as some of us hoped in the early 1970s - the Convention is an important building block for the development of World Law. The Nice Action Plan may be another step forward.
René Wadlow, Association of World Citizens
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