Secretary of Standing Committee of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, Mariam Nasser Al Hail (left), and John Brown from Cooley UK, during the opening session of the seminar at the Diplomatic Club, yesterday. Pic: Rajan
The Standing Committee of the Convention on the Law of the Sea at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is studying a project to issue an electronic marine chart of Qatar, an official has said.
Addressing the opening of a seminar on ‘Technical Aspects of the Maritime Boundaries, Baselines and Maritime Zones of the State of Qatar’ yesterday, Secretary of Standing Committee of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, Mariam Nasser Al Hail, said the committee is still studying the project of issuing an electronic marine chart for the State of Qatar. She said the seminar will introduce electronic marine charts and how to use them.
The three-day event, which aims to train officials on uses of maritime charts of the country, is being organised by the Standing Committee, in coordination with Cooley (UK) LLP.
Mariam Nasser Al Hail said the event was a technical workshop on the basic technical principles of hydrography and cartography and their application to the maritime borders, baselines and marine areas of Qatar.
Mariam said the workshop aims to enable its participants to understand the importance of the technical aspects of maritime areas and borders, the legal principles behind the demarcation of borders, and the use of electronic maritime chart that has been specially prepared for Qatar.
The seminar is being attended by representatives from the Ministry of Interior represented by the General Directorate of Coasts and Borders Security, the Permanent Committee for the Management of Seaports, the Qatari Amiri Naval Forces of the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Communications and IT, QatarEnergy, the Lands and Survey Department of the Ministry of Municipality, and Qatar University.
John Brown from Cooley will train the participants. Brown joined Cooley in 2016 as a Consultant in the Law of the Sea following early retirement from the UK Hydrographic Office where he was Head of the Law of the Sea Group.
Various sessions will be held during the three-day event. On first day, the participants were educated on different topics such as maritime zones: rights and responsibilities, internal waters; and charts from a law of the sea perspective focused on relevance to law of the sea applications.
