Verdict may not hit India’s fishing rights

nNEW DELHI : The ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (tribunal) at the Hague in the Italian marines case will not affect India’s rights in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for fishing, exploration of gas and so on, former additional solicitor general (ASG) PS Narasimha, who headed India’s legal team during the initial stages of the case before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, said.

The EEZ is a sea zone prescribed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and extends upto 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the coastline of the country. UNCLOS is an international agreement that defines the rights and responsibilities of nations with regard to their conduct and use of world seas and oceans and management of marine natural resources. As per Article 56 of UNCLOS, every country has sovereign rights within the EEZ including the right to exploit natural resources, living or non-living. The shooting of Indian fishermen in 2012 happened within the Indian EEZ. Despite that, the arbitral tribunal came to the conclusion that Italy had not violated India’s sovereign rights.

But the tribunal’s observations should be seen in the context of the specific incident of Enrica Lexie, an Italian oil tanker, wherein it held that a vessel can take action to protect itself from what it assumed was an attack by pirates, Narasimha said in an interview with HT.

“The Tribunal’s ruling does not impact India’s rights in the EEZ for fishing, exploration of gas, fishing in any manner whatsoever. The Tribunal’s observations (on Italy not having violated India’s sovereign rights) are limited to the extent of stating that a vessel has a right to protect itself from potential piracy attacks including in the EEZ of another state. These observations are only a reflection of the rights vested in a country’s vessel to protect itself in certain circumstances and not in derogation of the coastal state’s rights in the EEZ”, he said.