We have had a post showing the undersea geography of the South Atlantic. Presumably, this was intended to support the Argentine claim that because the Falklands lie on the continental shelf off the coast of South America they belong to Argentina. The relevant international law is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Part VI of the Convention does indeed give coastal states rights to the continental shelf off their coast. Where applying this to the South Atlantic falls apart is Article 121 of the Convention that grants the exact same rights to islands as it does to any other land. The Falklands being on the continental shelf does not give Argentina sovereignty, rather it limits the Argentine exclusive economic zone because the Falklands also possess an EEZ that shares the continental shelf with Argentina. Which is, of course, a large part of why Argentina wants to annex the Falklands, along with South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It should also be noted that Argentina trying to use UNCLOS to push its claim to the Falklands is grossly hypocritical. They try to hide behind a treaty that they regularly violate imposing restrictions on Falklands flagged vessels, vessels that have visited the Falklands and harassment of British vessels. Article 24 of the Convention imposes a duty on coastal states to allow unhampered innocent passage and prohibits the imposition of measures that interfere with the right to free passage or discrimination against the ships of any state or those going to or from any state. As always, Argentina are on the wrong side of international law.
Posted on: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 16:03:34 +0000
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