Lawrence AsangongoApaalse, a former Chief Director of the Ministry of Energy who presented himself to be elected to serve as a Commissioner on the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) at the United Nations, has beaten his competitors, securing a landslide victory.
He polled 131 votes out of the total of 167 people who voted at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, June 15, 2022.
Mr. Apaalse, a former Chief Director of the Ministry of Energy was among 26 candidates from different countries who were vying for 21 positions at the United Nations.
Commenting on the victory, Mr. Apaalse expressed gratitude to all those who supported him.
“It is not about me; it is about the love people have for our Great Ghana,” he said.
The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) is one of the three institutions created under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The Commission plays two significant roles in the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles of a Coastal State.
First, the CLCS is tasked to evaluate the claim of a Coastal State for an area of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.
Second, the CLCS may, upon request, also provide scientific and technical advice to the Coastal State in the preparation of its submission of the claim.
Mr Apaalse, a former Chief Director at Ghana’s Ministry of Energy, played a key role in securing victory for Ghana against Ivory Coast in 2017 during the three-year Ghana-Ivory Coast maritime dispute.
Delivering a speech at a short ceremony organised by Ghana’s Embassy in the New York City, USA, ahead of the election, Mr. Apaalse said he had learnt a lot of lessons since 2006 when he started following the State parties’ meetings and would bring his experiences to bear if he was elected.
Touching on his vision, Mr. Apaalse said one of the things he would do is to help accelerate the pace of evaluation of submissions to the Commission.
He noted that most of the submissions had remained on the shelves for several years, noting that it was about time these submissions were evaluated.
Mr. Lawrence AsangongoApaalse holds Masters Degrees in Petroleum Geology and Micropaleontology from the Russian State University of Oil and Gas, Moscow, and University College London, respectively as well as Diploma (Rhodes Ocean Scholar) from Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy, Greece.
Mr. Apaalsewas, prior to his latest selection, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Energy, responsible for initiating energy policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation as well as supervising and coordinating their implementation in all sixteen (16) Agencies under the Ministry.
Mr. Apaalse has over twenty-two (22) years working experience in the area of exploration geology with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
While working at GNPC, he served in the National Continental Shelf Advisory Committee that drafted a Justification Report and a Cabinet Memo for the establishment of the Ghana National Continental Shelf Delineation Project in August 2006. Subsequently became the National Coordinator of the Project and Head of the Technical Core Group which prepared Ghana’s submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) for the establishment of the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 nautical miles in accordance with Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
From 2010 to 2014, he successfully led Ghana’s delegation to a series of meetings in New York with the subcommittee established to examine Ghana’s submission. He made the final presentation to the CLCS on August 26, 2009, during the 24th Session,culminating in favourable Recommendations adopted by the Commission on 5 September 2014
He is the architect behind the unanimous adoption of the “no objection note”by ECOWAS memberStates of Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana to the consideration of their submissions in line with the Rules of Procedure of the Commission.
He is currently the Technical Advisor to the Ghana Boundary Commission, overseeing the delimitation of Ghana’s maritime boundaries. He led the Technical Team of Ghana in providing inputs for the maritime boundary dispute arbitration between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
He is a member of the Ghana Institution of Geoscientists and Ghana Boundary Commission.
He has published variously, including “Ghana’s Extended Continental Shelf Submission to the CLCS under Art 76 of UNCLOS” in the Sri Lanka Journal of International Law, Vol. 22(1).
