A meeting to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) took place on Sunday in the South Korean coastal city of Yeosu. In his opening speech, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the UNCLOS is among the world’s most significant legal instruments, and an important tool for sustainable development which every nation should ratify. Ban highlighted the UNCLOS’s role in ensuring international peace and security, the equitable and efficient use of ocean resources, and the realization of a just and equitable economic order. The US is the only major power that has not ratified the 1982 UNCLOS.

On the occasion, Ban launched a new initiative called “Oceans Compact” to protect the world’s oceans from pollution and over-fishing and to combat rising sea levels, which threaten the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people.