Somaliland: letter to the UN Secretary-General that signed by President Government of Somaliland asserts its sovereign rights under international law

The maritime zones will be carried into law in accordance with the #Somaliland Constitution. In due course, the Government will submit the geographical coordinates and a chart delineating the zones to the #UN Secretary-General. The Government will also communicate its decision to neighbouring states and other interested parties through diplomatic channels.

Today’s Declaration makes it clear that Somaliland repudiates Somalia’s 2014 EEZ proclamation that purports to lay claim to Somaliland’s waters and will exercise control over its sovereign territory to the fullest extent possible. This follows the decision by the Somaliland people in 1991 to exercise their inalienable right of self-determination, withdraw from their failed union with Somalia and restore independence won from Britain in 1960.

The 2001 Somaliland Constitution lays claim to the islands, the Territorial Sea, and the continental shelf. Under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a state is entitled to declare a series of maritime zones, including a 12-mile Territorial Sea, a 24-mile Contiguous Zone, a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone, and the continental shelf beyond it, subject to delimitation through negotiation with neighbouring states. Different legal regimes apply to each zone.