Satya N. Nandan

Satya N. Nandan of Fiji was elected to a third four-year term as Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N.-connected organization that is in charge of mining in the world’s oceans.

According to a press release issued by the Authority, Nandan was elected at a meeting of the Authority’s Assembly held in Kingston, Jamaica, on June 3.

Ambassador Nandan was elected as the first Secretary-General of the ISA in March 1996 and re-elected in March 2000. He has always played an important role in all matters connected with the Law of the Sea, first as head of Fiji’s delegation to the Seabed Committee ) and then to the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea ). He was among the leaders of the Conference and participated in the negotiations on a number of key issues.

As Rapporteur of the Second Committee of the Conference (the traditional law of the sea), he composed the single negotiating text for the Chairman, which became the basic text of the Committee. In 1975, he served as Chairman of the Working Groups on the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Delimitation of Maritime Boundaries and the High Seas.

Ambassador Nandan subsequently served as Foreign Secretary of Fiji and as a Under Secretary-General of the United Nations for the Law of the Sea ).

He headed the UN Office for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea and was responsible for the secretariat servicing the Preparatory Commission for the International Seabed Authority and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

Speaking after his election, Ambassador Nandan thanked the Authority’s members for their support and said he would continue to work to consolidate the progress the Authority had made. “I pledge to you that I will do my very best in the service of the Authority,” he said.

(Compiled from a press release by Charles Isaac)