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On 26-28 September, Lan Nguyen and Catherine Blanchard participated in the “Women in the Law of the Sea Conference” co-hosted by the International Seabed Authority and the Permanent Missions of the Republic of Singapore and of Malta to the United Nations.

The conference, which took place in New York and virtually, focused on the important contribution of women to the law of the sea, the participation of women in the institutions created by UNCLOS and related regional and sub-regional organizations and the pathways to enhance the potential for women to contribute to the law of the sea in the future. The conference further provided an opportunity to hear from female presenters from developing States and especially from least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small islands developing States.

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Lan’s online presentation was entitled “The UNCLOS Dispute Settlement System at Forty: Expectations, Challenges and the Glass Ceiling”. In her presentation, she discussed the extent to which the expectation that the UNCLOS dispute settlement system was compulsory and comprehensive held true four decades after the Convention was concluded, the challenges posed to the UNCLOS dispute settlement system, and some proposals to address the challenges identified. In keeping with the theme of the conference, she focused particularly on the issue of the glass ceiling and explored some ideas to enhance the participation of female judges and arbitrators within the UNCLOS dispute settlement system.

On location in New York, Catherine presented the , sharing preliminary observations on ecological connectivity and existing area-based management tools for the deep seabed, as well as recent engagement with the Draft Regional Environmental plan for the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

For more information on the conference, please see the website of the .