International Seabed Authority

The first Council of the Authority was elected by the Assembly at the second session of the Authority in March 1996. In accordance with the provisions of the Convention, the term of one‐half of the members elected at that time expired in 1998. On 25 March 1998, at its fifty‐third meeting, the Assembly decided that, in order to harmonize the terms of office of the members of the Council to be elected in 1998, their four‐year term would commence on 1 January 1999 and continue for a period of four calendar years until 31 December 2002. The Assembly also decided that the terms of office of the members of the Council elected in 1996 for a two‐year term would end on 31 December 1998. Thereafter new members were elected for the normal term of four years.

At its elections held on 27 July 2012, the Assembly elected the following members of the Council for a four year period as from 1 January 2013, subject to the understandings reached in the regional and interest groups¹ (ISBA-18A-10).

These are:

Group A:    China, Japan
Group B:     India
Group C:    Canada, South Africa
Group D:    Bangladesh, Brazil, Uganda
Group E:    Argentina, Czech Republic, Guyana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands², Poland, Senegal, Spain³, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ⁴               

A complete table of the Composition of the Council from 1996-2016 (pdf format) is also available for download.

The table below however only shows Council member states from 2011-2016