Read UNCLOS correctly to uphold justice

The abuse of the dispute settlement mechanism under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by some countries is a threat to peace and stability. The international community must accurately interpret the Convention to distinguish legal principles from political machinations.

Since it came into force in 1994, UNCLOS has served as an important legal framework. It has strengthened multilateralism, checked maritime hegemony and fostered maritime cooperation and the sustainable development of the seas and oceans.

The Convention is essentially a carefully negotiated "package deal" forged through compromise. Before the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea (1973-82), the law of the sea was fragmented and largely governed by customary law. To reach a broad consensus, the conference adopted a package deal approach that required countries to accept the Convention as a whole or reject it in its entirety. There was no option to cherry-pick favorable provisions. The result was a carefully balanced framework of more than 320 articles covering 17 major areas, allowing around 160 countries with competing claims to find common legal ground.