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| Montevideo Declaration |
|
Link
to text of agreement
Status of agreement
| Date of adoption |
8 May 1970 |
| Place of adoption |
Montevideo,
Uruguay |
| Entry into force |
n/a |
| Authentic text(s) |
English, French |
Following the failure of the First and Second
United Nations Conferences on the Law of the Sea in 1958 and 1960 to reach
agreement on the width of the territorial sea, many States began to act
unilaterally to establish extended zones of jurisdiction over certain resources
and activities. By the early 1970s, more than 40 States claimed territorial seas
or other zones of jurisdiction of more than three miles. In South America,
Argentina, Panama, Peru and Ecuador all claimed territorial seas of 200 miles,
while Nicaragua established a 200 mile fisheries zone. The unilateral South
American claims led to the Montevideo and
Lima Declarations of 1970, in which
these States jointly asserted the legality of their claims. This was followed
with the
Santa
Domingo Declaration of 1972. The effect of the three multilateral
declarations was to vividly demonstrate the almost universal rejection by South
America of the traditional doctrine of a three-mile territorial sea.
The first of these declarations was adopted in
May 1970, when Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua,
Panama, Peru and Uruguay signed the Montevideo Declaration. The Declaration set
out a number of basic principles on the law of the sea, as asserted by the
signatories, the first of which asserted
the right of coastal States to avail themselves of the natural resources of the
sea adjacent to their coasts and of the soil and subsoil thereof in order to
promote the maximum development of their economies and to raise the levels of
living of their people.
| Further
information and references |
- Associated instruments
