BSS-20 Cabinet approves draft Territorial Waters and Maritime Zone Act 2019

734

ZCZC

BSS-20

CABINET-MARITIME-LAW

Cabinet approves draft Territorial Waters and Maritime Zone Act 2019

DHAKA, Nov 25, 2019 (BSS) – The Cabinet today approved in principle the
draft of ‘Territorial Waters and Maritime Zone (Amendment) Act 2019’ aimed at unlocking huge
potentials of the blue economy and checking crimes, particularly piracy on
the sea.

The approval came from the regular Cabinet meeting held with Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina in the chair at her office here.

“The Foreign Ministry brought the proposed law before the Cabinet for its
approval in accordance with various sea related international laws and
conventions,” Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam told a news briefing
at the Secretariat after the meeting.

The country’s top bureaucrat said if the law is enacted, the rights of
Bangladesh for exclusive economic zone over 200 nautical miles and its
sovereign rights over 350 nautical miles in the continental shelf of the sea
will be established.

Under the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, all coastal
countries are granted sovereign right to stretch of sea extending 200
nautical miles beyond their coast, which is known as exclusive economic zone.

The proposed law has suggested capital punishment for murder while
committing robbery and other sea related crimes, he said.

As per the proposed law, the highest punishment for robbery is life-term
imprisonment, while 14-year imprisonment will be awarded for abetting
such crimes, he said.

The cabinet also gave approval to the proposal for ratification of “The
Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.”

In 2016, the amendment was brought to the protocol in Ruanda for the
phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by cutting their production and
consumption.

BSS/AHJ/ARS/1702 hrs