International waters


The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regional seas and estuaries, rivers, lakes, groundwater systems, and wetlands.
"International waters" is not a defined term in international law. It is an informal term, which sometimes refers to waters beyond the "territorial sea" of any country. In other words, "international waters" is sometimes used as an informal synonym for the more formal term "high seas", which under the doctrine of mare liberum, do not belong to any state's jurisdiction. As such, states have the right to fishing, navigation, overflight, laying cables and pipelines, and scientific research.
The Convention on the High Seas, signed in 1958, which has 63 signatories, defined "high seas" to mean "all parts of the sea that are not included in the territorial sea or in the internal waters of a State" and where "no State may validly purport to
subject any part of them to its sovereignty." The Convention on the High Seas was used as a foundation for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed in 1982, which recognized exclusive economic zones extending from the baseline, where coastal states have sovereign rights to the water column and sea floor as well as the natural resources found there.
The high seas make up 50% of the surface area of the planet and cover over two-thirds of the ocean.
Ships sailing the high seas are generally under the jurisdiction of the flag state ; however, when a ship is involved in certain criminal acts, such as piracy, any nation can exercise jurisdiction under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction. International waters can be contrasted with internal waters, territorial waters and exclusive economic zones.
UNCLOS also contains, in its part XII, special provisions for the protection of the marine environment, which, in certain cases, allow port States to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction over foreign ships on the high seas if they violate international environmental rules, such as the MARPOL Convention.

Underground transboundary waters

When an underground water crosses international boundaries, the term transboundary aquifer applies. The term transboundariness can then be applied, which is a concept, measure and approach first introduced in 2017 when talking about underground transboundary waters.
The importance of this approach is that the physical properties of aquifers become merely additional variables within the broad spectrum of the transboundary nature of an aquifer: social ; economic ; political ; existing research or data; water quality and quantity; other issues that drive the agenda.
The criteria proposed through this approach attempt to encompass and quantify all potential variables that play a role in defining the transboundary nature and multidimensional boundaries of an underground transboundary water.

International waterways

Several international treaties have established freedom of navigation on semi-enclosed seas.
Other international treaties have opened up rivers, which are not traditionally international waterways.
Current unresolved disputes over whether particular waters are "International waters" include:

Global agreements

At least ten conventions are included within the Regional Seas Program of UNEP, including:
  1. the Atlantic Coast of West and Central Africa
  2. the North-East Pacific
  3. the Mediterranean
  4. the wider Caribbean
  5. the South-East Pacific
  6. the South Pacific
  7. the East African seaboard
  8. the Kuwait region
  9. the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden
Addressing regional freshwater issues is the 1992 Helsinki Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes

Water-body-specific agreements

Freshwater institutions