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BACKGROUND CO-CHAIRS’ PROVISIONAL REPORT 1. The Centre for International Law (CIL) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) jointly organized a 1 ½ day Workshop on the Protection of Submarine Cables on 14-15 April 2011 at the Novotel Hotel in Singapore. The Workshop immediately followed the 2011 ICPC Annual Plenary Meeting which was held in Singapore from the 12-14 April 2011. 2. The objectives of the Workshop were to increase awareness among Governments in the region about the problems in the protection of fibre optic submarine cables (submarine cables) and to discuss concrete measures that the cable industry, Governments and international organizations can take to protect submarine cables. 3. The Workshop continued the momentum generated by the Workshop on Submarine Cables and Law of the Sea 1 jointly organized by CIL and ICPC in December 2009 and by the General Assembly Omnibus Resolution on oceans and law of the sea adopted by the UN on 7th December 2010. The Resolution, for the first time, called upon States to take measures to protect submarine cables which it described as “critical communications infrastructure” and as “vitally important to the global economy and the national security of all States.” 4. The Workshop was co-chaired by CIL Director Robert Beckman and ICPC international legal advisor Douglas Burnett. More than 150 invited representatives from the cable industry, Governments, international organizations and academia attended the Workshop. Government participants included representatives from 9 of the 10 ASEAN Member States, China, India, Australia and New Zealand. Representatives from the UN Division on Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (UNDOALOS), the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) also participated. In addition, more than 80 delegates who had attended the ICPC Plenary Meeting extended their stay to participate in the Workshop. 5. The Workshop Agenda is attached as Appendix 1. The PowerPoint Presentations presented at the Workshop are available on the CIL Website. 2 SUBMARINE CABLES AS CRITICAL COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE 6. Although many people believe that their emails and phone messages are being instantly sent around the world via communications satellites, in fact, more than 95% of our electronic communications are being transmitted via fibre optic submarine cables laid on the ocean seabed. In the past quarter-century, there has been an exponential growth in submarine cables in response to the communications revolution triggered by the internet. As a result, almost every country is heavily reliant on submarine cables for almost all electronic communications 1 For more information on the 2009 CIL Workshop on Submarine Cables and Law of the Sea, please see http://cil.nus.edu.sg/programmes-and-activities/past-events/workshop-on-submarine-cables-and-the-law-ofthe-sea-on-14-15-december-2009/ . 2 For PowerPoint Presentations and Papers presented at the Workshop, please refer to http://cil.nus.edu.sg/powerpoint-presentations-and-papers-presented-at-the-2011-workshop/. 2
elating to finance, commerce, air navigation, sea navigation, entertainment, research and defence. 7. However, submarine cables are subject to a variety of threats, both natural and man-made. Natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis and severe storms can cause significant damage to submarine cables. Man-made causes such as fishing and anchoring activities are also responsible for the majority of submarine cable faults. The damage caused to cables takes a considerable amount of time to repair, disrupting telecommunications for many States, and with the average cost of a cable repair ranging between US$ 1-3 million dollars. THE LEGAL REGIME GOVERNING SUBMARINE CABLES 8. The legal regime governing submarine cables has its origins in the 1884 Convention on the Protection of Submarine Telegraph Cables (1884 Convention) which contained provisions on the protection of submarine telegraph cables (the predecessor to fibre optic cables). The 1958 Geneva Conventions on the Law of the Sea 3 incorporated three provisions on the protection of submarine cables from the 1884 Convention and also contained provisions on the freedom to lay submarine cables. The 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is the current legal regime governing submarine cables and most of its provisions on submarine cables are taken verbatim from the 1958 Geneva Conventions. For a more detailed discussion on the legal regime governing submarine cables, please see the CIL Website. 4 For the 1884 Convention, the 1958 Geneva Conventions and relevant provisions on submarine cables in UNCLOS, please refer to Selected Documents on Submarine Cables available on the CIL Website. 5 PROBLEMS IN LAW AND STATE PRACTICE RELATING TO SUBMARINE CABLES 9. There are four major problems in both the law on submarine cables and State practice on submarine cables. 10. First, many States have not enacted measures to protect submarine cables from competing activities both within territorial waters and outside of territorial waters. Neither have they implemented their obligations under UNCLOS to protect submarine cables. 6 For example, Article 113 requires States Parties to criminalize the breaking or injury of a submarine cable outside territorial waters done willfully or through culpable negligence by their nationals or by ships flying their flag. However, very few States Parties to UNCLOS have passed legislation implementing this provision. 3 The 1958 Convention on the High Seas and the 1958 Convention on the Continental Shelf. 4 See for example, Douglas Burnett, “The International Legal Regime Governing the Submarine Cables: UNCLOS and the 1884 International Convention on the Protection of Submarine Cables,” PowerPoint Presentation presented at the CIL-ICPC Workshop, 14 – 15 April 2011, available at http://cil.nus.edu.sg/powerpointpresentations-and-papers-presented-at-the-2011-workshop/. You may also wish to refer to Robert Beckman, “Submarine Cables Submarine Cables – A Critically Important but Neglected Area of the Law of the Sea,” presented at the 7 th International Conference of the International Society of International Law on Legal Regimes of Sea, Air, Space and Antarctica, 15 – 17 January 2009, New Delhi available at http://cil.nus.edu.sg/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Beckman-PDF-ISIL-Submarine-Cables-rev-8-Jan-10.pdf 5 This is available at http://cil.nus.edu.sg/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Submarine-Cables-Documents.pdf. 6 These obligations can be found in Article 113, 114 and 115 of UNCLOS. 3
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Page 9 and 10: Panelists: 1. Dean VEVERKA (Souther

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