JAKARTA - The representation of Indonesia's view as the largest archipelagic country in the world and the vast sea, is important to be presented in the International Court for Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
That was conveyed by Professor Dr. Eddy Pratomo SH, MA, Professor of Marine Law UNDIP and Indonesian Ambassador nominated by Indonesia as ITLOS judges.
Professor Eddy explained, Indonesia is a big country in the maritime sector, with two-thirds of its territory being the sea, and having the principle of an archipelagic state.
He explained that Indonesia's position in border line negotiations with neighboring countries is looking for a withdrawal of lines using archipelagic baselines. In contrast to not an archipelagic country.
"In my opinion, the representation of Indonesia's views needs to be contributed to this thought to ITLOS," he explained in a press statement at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, Friday, May 9 evening.
He explained that Indonesia wants to contribute to making opinion advisory (regarding international marine law).
He said that although ITLOS was relatively less well-known than the Internasional Court (ICJ), it handled around 30 cases of inter-state exchange. Recently, ITLOS has a strong correlation with the current situation. Last year, ITLOS conveyed an advisory opinion regarding climate change, sea level rise.
According to him, ITLOS should be a think-tank in the field of marine law problems. All negotiations, all sea affairs, already have a constitution.
"The Basic Law on ITLOS is UNCLOS (1982), we are a party country in UNCLOS and we are an archipelagic country, we have a special chapter, Chapter IV at UNCLOS about archipelagic countries," he said.
He added, if elected, later he will represent the Asia Pacific region which has about 4-5 judges in ITLOS. There are a total of 21 judges from all over the world, including Latin America, Europe, America, Africa, Africa and Asia Pacific.
As previously reported, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia Arif Havas Oegroseno announced the nomination of two Indonesian representatives in two international institutions, namely Professor Dr. Eddy Pratomo SH, MA as judges at the International Court for Marine Law (ITLOS) and Professor Hikmahanto Juwana SH, LL.M, Ph.D as members of the International Law Commission (ILC).
Deputy Foreign Minister Havas explained that Professor Eddy's candidacy cannot be separated from Indonesia as a party state in the 1982 UNCLOS international marine law convention. However, since ITLOS was founded in the same year, Indonesia has never had a judge who sits in an international marine law court.
"On the other hand, Indonesia wants to reflect on developing countries, from ASEAN areas that must have representation. Moreover, Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world, it will be ideal, if the interests of developing countries, archipelagic countries can be reflected in the composition of international marine law judges," he explained.
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Wamenlu Havas mengatakan, sebagai negara pulau terbesar di dunia, wilayah laut yang sangat luas, posisi geografi yang sangat strategis, cara pandang bangsa kita terhadap laut, pengalaman sebagai bangsa yang pernah mengajukan konsep negara pulau menjadi prinsip negara terpulau, belum banyak disuarakan di dalam keputusan hakim hukum laut di bawah ITLOS
"We want the representation of the way the Indonesian people think in the context of ITLOS," said Deputy Foreign Minister Havas.
It is known that Professor Eddy was nominated as an ITLOS judge for the 2026-2035 tenure.
The selection of ITLOS judges for the period 2026-2035 will be held at a meeting of International Marine Law Convention members in New York, United States. The meeting, which will be held in June 2026, will elect seven new judges to replace the judges whose term of office ends.
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