Upcoming Events for Fall 2013

Sunday, September 15
Don Kraus
GlobalSolutions.com

Sunday, October 20
Rev. Dr. William F. Schulz
President and CEO
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

Sunday, November 17
John Norton Moore
University of Virginia School of Law

All meetings begin at 3:00 pm at
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church, 717 Rugby Rd., Charlottesville
For details, CLICK HERE.

Support the ratification of

The Law of the Sea Treaty

The Law of the Sea has set international standards for fishing, deep sea mining, and navigation since the majority of the world's countries signed it in 1982. It provides coastal nations with exclusive rights to ocean resources within 200 nautical miles of their borders - areas known as "exclusive economic zones," or EEZs. The agreement also oversees an international tribunal to settle fishing, pollution, and property rights disputes, as well as the International Seabed Authority, a body formed to assign mining rights beyond the EEZs.

If the United States approves the treaty, the agreement would include the country with the largest EEZ in the world, while also potentially clearing the way for U.S. oil companies to mine the Arctic Ocean. The treaty already has support from a diverse coalition of U.S. interest groups that represent national security, industry, and the environment. Yet continued opposition from Republican lawmakers may stall ratification, in a test for whether the Obama administration can galvanize support for international environmental agreements, observers said.

Among the international treaties that President Obama supported during his campaign - including a nuclear test ban, a global bill of rights for women, biodiversity accords, and a renewed climate change agreement - the Law of the Sea is likely to face less opposition, according to observers. It is supported by a wide array of interest groups, including the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, international environmental groups, and the mining, fishing, shipping, and telecommunications industries.

In response to increasing assertiveness by China in regards to its territorial claims in the South China Sea, a major conduit for international trade, Secretary of State Clinton stated in November that the U.S. wanted the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to be "used as the overriding framework for handling territorial disputes" between China and its neighbors. Earlier in the year, Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations, stated in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee that it is "essential that the United States become a full party" to the Law of the Sea Treaty.