Lawrence Folajimi Awosika Is Re-Elected UNCLCS Chairman [2017-22]

Recently updated on June 26th, 2019 at 04:14 pm

Professor Lawrence Folajimi Awosika, has been re-elected as Chairman of the United Nation’s Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) [2017].

Professor Lawrence Folajimi Awosika polled 154 out of 157 votes to emerge Chair of the prestigious 21-person UN scientific body.

CLCS is the UN body that decides what portions of the seabed can be exclusively mined for natural resources such as oil, precious metals and minerals.

Awosika, first elected into the Commission in 1997, was elected for another five-year tenure in 2012 to 2015 as Chairman and with his re-election, would be on the Commission as Chairman for the 2017 to 2022 term.

Apart from signalling prestige, a membership of the commission allows Nigeria to gauge the scientific strength of claims by countries to parts of the seabed that, like territorial waters, are often hard to demarcate.