International Seabed Authority of Mir
The International Seabed Authority of Mir (ISAM) is the international organization through which Mir's states organize and control mineral activities in the Area, the seabed beyond national jurisdiction, whose resources are the common heritage of all the peoples of Mir. All five states are members. It sits at the seat of the United Mirians and regulates the belt around the Amarena Trench.
History and Mandate
ISAM was created by the Mir Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the states adopted about two decades after the founding of the United Mirians. The Convention entered into force a few years later, and ISAM was established with all five states as members. The Agreement on Nodules, Common Heritage and Ocean Resources of the Amarena Sea (ANCHOR) was approved by the Assembly at its first session. Under ANCHOR, the Amarena Trench is administered as the Area, and ISAM regulates activities in the surrounding belt.
Signing the Mir Convention on the Law of the Sea The Area and belt in the Amarena Sea
ISAM has four main bodies. The Assembly of all members is its supreme organ: it approves the budget and rules and elects the Secretary-General. The Council, the executive organ, approves plans of work and can issue emergency orders. The Legal and Technical Commission reviews applications and supervises activities, and the Secretariat, led by the Secretary-General, receives contractors' reports. ISAM is funded by members' contributions, contractors' fees and license payments.
Rowan Mamani
Rowan Mamani is ISAM's Secretary-General,
the organization's chief administrative
officer. Born and raised in Ghanidash, she
studied law in Los Daniagos and joined the
foreign ministry, where she came to specia-
lize in the law of the sea and represented
Ghanidash in regional negotiations on
maritime boundaries and fisheries. She later
spent several years in ISAM's Secretariat as
its legal counsel, advising the Council and
the Legal and Technical Commission as they drafted the Authority's rules, regulations and procedures. The Assembly subsequently elected her Secretary-General, and later re-elected her to a second term.
Rowan Mamani speaking at the UMGA
As Secretary-General, Mamani receives
contractors' reports and notifications,
oversees the Secretariat's staff and
represents the Authority in its relations
with the United Mirians. Each year she
reports to the Assembly on ISAM's work.
Mamani is fifty-seven years old and lives at
the seat of the United Mirians. She has
published a number of books on the law of
the sea and on the work of international
organizations, including a textbook widely used in law schools across Mir and a short history of the Authority's early years.
Rowan Mamani, Secretary-General ISAM
Regulation and Revenue
The Regulations on Deep-Seabed Exploitation and Environmental Protection (DEEP Regulations), adopted by the Council and approved by the Assembly, govern how applications are reviewed, how contractors monitor and report on their operations, and how inspectors supervise activities. After the Great Hadian War, the Council added an expedited procedure for applications principally for strategic minerals for reconstruction, defined as the rare earth elements, with much shorter review periods.
In the belt, ISAM has so far issued only one commercial exploitation license, to Patna Surat Sea Resources (PSSR) for PSSR Block C, known as the Lumen prospect. It was the first license of its kind ever issued anywhere in the Trench or the belt.
Contractors' royalties are held in ISAM's special account. Under ANCHOR, they are to be shared equitably, with particular regard to the needs of the peoples of Mir, under criteria the Assembly adopts by consensus. None have yet been adopted.
High Court Proceedings
After Hurricane Yolanda, contamination spread along the coasts of the Cornuchuan Plains and inland into Lake Haida. ISAM required PSSR to suspend its operations at Block C. ISAM is now a respondent in Case No. HCM-DIII-023 before the High Court of Mir. The Authority has said that it followed the procedures in force and acted on the information reported to it.