Christina Pardo Ménez, daughter of the late Ambassador Arvid Pardo, recently paid an official visit to the International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI).

Ms Pardo Menéz, who was welcomed by IMLI director David Attard, placed a wreath of flowers at her father’s monument at the University. The Pardo monument was unveiled in 2007 by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.

Ambassador Arvid Pardo, ‘the father of the new law of the sea’, contributed to the birth of the modern law of the sea enshrined in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

In a speech he had delivered to the UN General Assembly in 1967, when he was the Permanent Representative of Malta to the UN, he called for international regulations to prevent the oceans from becoming a theatre for escalating conflict between nations, to stop sea pollution through negligence and to protect the resources of the sea.

Working on this initiative, the UN General Assembly adopted a declaration providing that seabed resources beyond the limits of national jurisdiction constitute the common heritage of mankind.

It is thanks to his dedication that 15 years later, UNCLOS was adopted after attracting a record 159 signatures, and has since then fostered the maintenance of peace and security.