03 September 2024, New York - The Maldives signed the BBNJ Agreement today.
On the behalf of the Maldives، the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed signed the Agreement at the United Nations Headquarters in New York this afternoon.
In 2015 the General Assembly of the United Nations decided to develop a legally binding instrument relating to the protection and sustainable use of marine biological diversity and areas beyond national jurisdiction. Pursuant to which the substance of the instrument were compiled in the years between 2016 and 2023 and the legal instrument was adopted on
19 June 2023 in the form of an Agreement.
And on 11 February 2024 the Cabinet of Ministers concluded to ratify the agreement and submitted to the Parliament on 29 February 2024 to get its consent to proceed with the work related to ratification. Pursuant to which on 13 May 2024 the Parliament gave the consent to be a party to the Agreement.
Where the protection of the biodiversity within the territorial sea of the Maldives is a significant responsibility of the Maldives, this responsibility includes ensuring the area beyond its territorial jurisdiction and the biological diversity contained within are protected and sustainably used.
To that end the Agreement signed today sets up a procedure to establish large-scale marine protected areas. The Agreement contains marine technological transfer mechanisms and formalities relating to fighting climate change. And because all of these are important to the protection of benefits gained by the Maldives from its territorial sea, the Maldives stands to gain significant benefits from being a party to this Agreement. Up until the signing of the Agreement by the Maldives, 91 countries had signed the Agreement and 8 countries had ratified the Agreement.
