Introduction

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The issue of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks was taken up during the preparatory meetings leading to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). During UNCED, participants expressed serious concerns about the state of world fisheries, in particular the mismanagement of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks in the high seas. UNCED adopted Agenda 21, which in chapter 17 called, inter alia, for an intergovernmental conference under the auspices of the United Nations to promote effective implementation of the provisions of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.¹ The conference was to identify and assess existing problems related to the conservation and management of such stocks, to consider means of improving cooperation on fisheries among states, and to formulate appropriate recommendations.

UNCED also called on states to take effective action to deter re-flagging of fishing boats.² In the run-up to UNCED, the Mexican government had sponsored an International Conference on Responsible Fishing, held in Cancun, Mexico in May 1992. Representatives from 49 states, holding 70 percent of the world's fishing capacity, attended the conference, which adopted by consensus the 1992 Cancun Declaration on Responsible Fishing. The Cancun Declaration called on the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to begin work on the development of an international code of conduct for responsible fishing.

Against this background, the international community moved into what can be described as a two-track approach to the problems of high seas over- fishing. One component was the negotiation of an international agreement to deal specifically with straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks; the other was the development of a code of conduct, which was intended to be voluntary in nature and cover much more than high seas fishing.³ At the same time, FAO was working on a compliance agreement, which was intended to be an integral part of the voluntary code of conduct and to reduce fishing on the high seas in ways-such as, notably, re-flagging of Page 2 ships-that ran counter to internationally agreed conservation and management measures.

Following the 1992 UNCED recommendation, the United Nations Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks convened the first of its six sessions in April 1993. At its sixth session, from July 24 to August 8, 1995...