The Common Heritage of Mankind? Socioenvironmental Impacts of Deep Seabed Mining

Becca Farnum, Queen Mary University of London (United Kingdom)

In 1958, Prince Wan Waithayakon of Thailand made history at the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea by advocating for “the common heritage of mankind” as a guiding principle. The idea became enshrined in UNCLOS, with the International Seabed Authority formed to oversee collective benefit. “The Area”, as the seabed beyond national jurisdictions is known, took on a special legal status - one that would seem to pave the way for a new approach to global ‘commons’, and has informed international cooperation over aerospace and the Arctic. But despite this remarkable normative advancement in international law, serious concerns about peace and conflict around the seabed continue to arise. Demand for critical minerals places political pressure on the ISA to permit more and more mining ventures, resulting in noise pollution and habitat destruction; histories of enslavement and forced migration have made the ocean floor a violent graveyard. This presentation will consider current tensions and attempts at peacebuilding over and with the seabed. part of the "Mine-ing What’s Ours: Creative Peacebuilding Responses to Extractive Violence" panel