United Nations Division For Ocean Affairs And The Law Of The Sea News

Several United Nations (UN) agencies have agreed to establish a mechanism to enhance existing inter-agency communication with respect to the maritime aspects of mixed migration by sea. Agencies concerned about the loss of life, injury, trauma and serious human rights violations affecting migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees traveling by sea met in London last week (March 4-5) at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Building on the Joint Statement on Protection at Sea in the Twenty-First Century…

IMO has joined with a host of other United Nations agencies and leading international scientific bodies in developing the first comprehensive real-time tool to assess the state of world's oceans. The Internet-based United Nations Atlas of the Oceans was launched on World Environment Day June 5, 2002 at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in Paris, France. More than 2½ years in development after a decade of planning, the Atlas of the Oceans represents the most ambitious global scientific information collaboration ever on-line and an international consensus-building tool expected to assist negotiations of future marine-related agreements.