Early Operationalisation of the BBNJ Treaty: Regional Exercise for PrepCom2
30-31 July 2025 | UNESCAP, Bangkok, Thailand
Rationale
The adoption of the BBNJ Agreement[1], also known as the High Seas Treaty, in June 2019 by UN member states is a landmark feat for ocean governance. It promises to deliver equitable benefit sharing from the marine genetic resources and digital sequence information, a more robust environmental impact assessment to prevent harmful activities in the international waters, capacity-building and transfer of marine technology, and a legal framework to establish high seas marine protected areas through area-based management tools.
In September 2023, the Treaty was opened for signature and the Race for Ratification to become State Parties has gained momentum since then. Almost two years since the Treaty was adopted, the BBNJ Preparatory Commission (PrepCom) held its first substantive session to start the discussion and negotiation on building its institutions for the early operationalisation. The PrepCom1 offered a positive progress in discussing key issues ranging from governance, Clearing House Mechanism, and financial resources/mechanism.
Ahead of PrepCom2 and with the anticipation of notes from the Co-Chairs and the Secretariat in the next coming months, a regional workshop will be co-organised by the High Seas Alliance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand to unpack the remaining Program of Work and exchange initial views and ideas.
Objectives
The regional workshop aims to aid the Asia government delegates in PrepCom2 Meeting. Specifically, its aims to:
● Facilitate exchange of insights and available information on the PrepCom agenda items, and if available already, the organisation of work for PrepCom2;
● Hold scenario-based exercise on key issues and mechanisms of the Treaty to widen and deepen the context of understanding among delegates; and
● Exchange learnings on the domestic processes of ratification.
High-level overview
The two-day regional workshop will be delivered in the proposed modalities:
● Sensitization on the context of the Treaty: this session will cover institutional memory, i.e., collective knowledge and context on how the packaged issues were negotiated and the provisions were shaped. Revisiting the Treaty’s negotiation can aid delegates in deeper understanding of its objectives.
● Informative sessions on the key issues/PoW: While the organisers will aim to cover all three issues from the PoW, focus will be given to a number of agenda items (e.g., Clearing House Mechanism) that will be identified through the survey that will be circulated among Asia government delegates
● Scenario-based exercise: On certain topics such as some elements of the Clearing House Mechanism, scenario-based exercise will be designed accordingly as a practical approach on how the Treaty will be operationalised when it enters into force.
