The non-sustainable use of the world's natural resources and environmental degradation prompted the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on 22 December 1989 to adopt resolution 44/228. This resolution called for a global meeting to devise integrated strategies that would halt and reverse the negative impact of human behaviour on the physical environment and promote environmentally long-term sustainable economic development in all countries.

UNCED, the meeting called for in UNGA resolution 44/228, was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3 to 14 June 1992. The Conference, attended by more than 178 heads of government, deputy heads of government, or ranking government ministers committed their respective governments to the 27 principles contained in the Declaration of Rio on Environment and Development (Rio Declaration) and the carefully negotiated text of Agenda 21: Programme of Action for Sustainable Development (Agenda 21). The Rio Declaration was endorsed by the UNGA in resolution 47/190 of 22 December 1992.

The Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 were negotiated largely in a preparatory commission, consisting of four sessions between 1990 and 1992, at United Nations headquarters in New York. Most of the text was agreed at the officials level in the preparatory commission, though a number of important issues, and in particular those matters relating to the funding for the implementation of Agenda 21, were addressed, if not resolved, at a political level at the Rio Summit. Although the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 do not have legally binding effect, both texts, nonetheless, carry a strong moral obligation for States to ensure that they are fully and effectively implemented.

As a means of demonstrating the international resolve to ensure that positive and effective steps were taken to implement the principles contained in the Rio Declaration and the programme of action in Agenda 21, UNCED requested the UNGA to establish a United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD). The CSD was established at United Nations headquarters in 1992. The Commission consists of representatives of member States of the United Nations and serves as the principle 'watch dog' to monitor progress on the implementation of the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21.

The CSD met for the first time in June 1993. In subsequent years, the CSD will consider chapters of Agenda 21 on a four-year rotating basis. In its resolution 47/190 the UNGA, upon the recommendation of the CSD, decided to convene, not later than 1997, a special session for the purpose of an overall review of the implementation of Agenda 21.

Agenda 21 is a comprehensive action plan with a preamble, four sections and a total of 40 chapters. It also includes a Statement on Forest Principles. The four sections of Agenda 21 address:

(i) social and economic dimensions;

(ii) conservation and management of resources for development;

(iii) strengthening the role of major groups, and

(iv) the means of implementation.

Chapter 17 of Agenda 21 deals with "Protection of the oceans, all kinds of seas, including enclosed and semi-enclosed seas, and coastal areas and the protection, rational use and development of their living resources". There are seven programme areas in this chapter. These are:

(A) integrated management and sustainable development of coastal and marine areas, including exclusive economic zones;

(B) marine environmental protection;

(C) sustainable use and conservation of marine living resources of the high seas;

(D) sustainable use and conservation of marine living resources under national jurisdiction;

(E) addressing critical uncertainties for the management of the marine environment and climate change;

(F) strengthening international, including regional, cooperation and coordination, and

(G) sustainable development of small islands.

Each programme of Chapter 17 is set out in terms of the basis for action, objectives, activities (management-related activities, data and information, and international and regional cooperation and coordination), and the means of implementation (financing and cost evaluation, scientific and technological means, human resource development and capacity building).

Under Programme Area C of Chapter 17 of Agenda 21, States should take effective action to ensure that high seas fisheries are managed in accordance with the 1982 Convention. In part, States are required to:

"(d) Define and identify appropriate management units;

17.50 States should convene, as soon as possible, an intergovernmental conference under United Nations auspices, taking into account relevant activities at the subregional, regional and global levels, with a view to promoting effective implementation of the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks. The conference, drawing, inter alia, on scientific and technical studies by FAO, should identify and assess existing problems related to the conservation and management of such fish stocks, and consider means of improving cooperation on fisheries among States, and formulate appropriate recommendations. The work and the results of the conference should be fully consistent with the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in particular the rights and obligations of coastal States and States fishing on the high seas. ..."

In terms of the conservation and management activities necessary to achieve this objective, Programme Area C of Agenda 21, recommends that States should cooperate bilaterally and multilaterally, as appropriate, at the subregional, regional and global levels to ensure that high seas fisheries are managed in accordance with the provisions of the 1982 Convention. In particular States should:

(i) give full effect to the provisions of the 1982 Convention with respect to straddling stocks and highly migratory species;

(ii) negotiate, as appropriate, international agreements for the effective conservation and management of fish stocks;

(iii) define and identify appropriate management units, and

(iv) convene a UN intergovernmental conference focusing on straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks.

In Programme Area C, States are further called upon to:

(i) ensure that incidental catches on the high seas are minimized;

(ii) enact effective monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) measures to ensure compliance with applicable conservation and management measures, including full, detailed, accurate and timely reporting of catch and effort data;

(iii) deter reflagging of fishing vessels to avoid compliance with applicable conservation and management measures for high seas fishing activities;

(iv) prohibit destructive fishing practices;

(v) fully implement United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 46/215 on large-scale pelagic driftnet fishing, and

(vi) take measures to increase the availability of marine living resources as human food.

Because of the size and complexity of the ocean issues, an Administrative Committee on Coordination/Sub-Committee on Oceans and Coastal Areas (ACC/SC) has been established in 1994 by the Inter-Agency Committee on Sustainable Development (IACSD) as Task Manager, inter alia, to mmonitor and review the implementation of Chapter 17. The ACC/SC is chaired by FAO until 1996. IOC/UNESCO provides the secretariat for the ACC/SC.

Depending on their respective mandates, the different United Nations agencies of the ACC/SC have been assigned responsibility as sub-task managers to oversee and report to the CSD on progress with the implementation of Chapter 17 of Agenda21. With respect to fisheries, FAO and the United Nations have been assigned joint responsibility for overseeing the implementation of Programme Area C (marine living resources of the high seas) while FAO, in its own right, has responsibility for Programme Area D (marine living resources under national jurisdiction). Other United Nations agencies, as appropriate, will also work closely with FAO and the United Nations in executing these assigned tasks.