§ 39. Mr. James Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is his policy towards the enforcement of the Final Act of the United Nations law of the sea conference.
§ Mr. EggarThe Final Act of the United Nations law of the sea conference records the proceedings of the conference; the law of the sea convention and a number of resolutions are annexed to it.
As my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Edinburgh, Pentlands (Mr. Rifkind) the then Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, told the House on 6 December 1984, we regard much of the convention as valuable, but we have objections to the proposed deep seabed mining regime. Even for states which have ratified or acceded to it, the convention comes into force only one year after deposit of 60 instruments of ratification or accession; only 32 such instruments have been deposited. But many states follow some of the practices laid down in the convention.