ACL 13/2016

IHO File No. S1/6000/2017 ASSEMBLY CIRCULAR LETTER No. 13 14 November 2016 1st SESSION OF THE IHO ASSEMBLY Monaco, 24-28 April 2017 --------- APPROVAL OF LISTS OF OBSERVERS References: A. General Regulations of the IHO (new) - Article 4 B. ACL No. 9 dated 25 August 2016 - Invited Observers- Submission of Final Lists for Approval Dear Hydrographer, 1. In accordance with the General Regulations of the IHO (see Reference A), Assembly Circular Letter No. 9 (see Reference B) requested Member States to consider approving the list of States that are not Parties to the IHO Convention to be invited to attend the first session of the IHO Assembly (A-1) and to provide further comments, if any, on the lists of invited observer organizations. 2. The Secretariat thanks the 56 Member States that have replied: Algeria, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Latvia, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay and Venezuela. 3. All Member States, except one, supported the adoption of the list of invited States that are not Parties to the IHO Convention. Three Member States offered comments in addition to their vote. Their comments and the outcome of their review by the Secretariat are provided in Annex A to this letter. 4. There are currently 85 Member States of the IHO with three States suspended. Therefore, in accordance with paragraph 6 of Article VI of the Convention on the IHO that was applicable when the consultation was initiated, the majority required for adoption of the list of States invited as observers was 55. As a result, the list of invited States is approved. 5. Consequently, invitations to attend A-1 will be issued, taking into account the comments received as indicated in Annex A. Yours sincerely, Robert WARD Secretary-General Annex A: Member States’ responses to IHO ACL 9 and comments from the Secretariat  Annex A to IHO ACL 13 MEMBER STATES’ RESPONSES TO IHO ACL 9 AND COMMENTS FROM THE SECRETARIAT INVITED OBSERVERS - SUBMISSION OF FINAL LISTS FOR APPROVAL CHILE Vote = NO We esteem that those countries not having any relationship with the IHO, not having applied to join IHO, not participating in any IHO Group, not being in the process of becoming members and not being IMO Members, that is, those marked in the Table I of Annex A exclusively with the symbol (*), should not be considered. We believe that it is an unnecessary wear for the IHO to think of inviting countries having no utmost interest or for whom there is no relevance in participating directly or indirectly in the IHO matters. Inviting for inviting seems to us unnecessary. Secretariat comment: Chile comment is noted. The Secretariat considers that sending out a few additional invitations places no burden nor obligation on the IHO, but it could help to emphasise that hydrography should be a concern for all States, in line with the scope of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. FRANCE Vote = YES France suggests inviting the following organizations as observers: African Union, Australasian Hydrographic Society (AHS), Association Francophone d’Hydrographie (AFHy), Group on Earth Observations (GEO), International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Secretariat comment: Article 4(c) of the General Regulations provide for inviting intergovernmental organizations with which an agreement or special arrangement has been made. No such arrangement or agreement has been made yet with the African Union and ICES. Noting that the IHO is accredited as an observer organization to GEO, an invitation will be issued to the Secretariat of GEO. Non-governmental international organizations which have been or will be accredited as observers before A-1 will be invited as well. These include the Open Geospatial Consortium (see IHO CL 53/2016) and the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO), subject to no adverse comments received from Member States in response to IHO CL 60/2016. Invitations will also be issued to AHS and AFHy, noting that they are member societies of the International Federation of Hydrographic Societies (IFHS) that will, in any case, be invited as an observer organization to the IHO. MONACO Vote = YES Monaco suggests inviting the following organizations as observers: African Union, Australasian Hydrographic Society, Association Francophone d'Hydrographie (AFHy), Group on Earth Observations (GEO), International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Secretariat comment: see comment in response to the suggestion from France.