Back دولة أرخبيلية Arabic দ্বীপপুঞ্জীয় রাষ্ট্র Bengali/Bangla Estat arxipelàgic Catalan Estado archipelágico Spanish کشور مجمعالجزایری Persian État archipélagique French Negara kepulauan ID 群島国家 Japanese Negara kepulauan MAP-BMS Estado arquipelágico Portuguese
An archipelagic state is an island country that consists of one or more archipelagos. The designation is legally defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 (UNCLOS III).[1] The Bahamas, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines are the five original sovereign states that obtained approval in the UNCLOS signed in Montego Bay, Jamaica on 10 December 1982 and qualified as the archipelagic states.[2][3]
An archipelagic state can designate the waters between the islands as sovereign archipelagic waters.
As of 20 June 2015, a total of 22 sovereign states have sought to claim archipelagic status.[4] Some island countries comprise one or more archipelagos in a geographical sense, but chose not to claim the archipelagic state status, including Japan, Malta, New Zealand, Cuba, Iceland, and the United Kingdom.[5]
- ^ Oegroseno 2014, p. 125.
- ^ "Preamble to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Article 46 – Use of Terms". United Nations. May 13, 2013.
- ^ "United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982". United Nations. May 13, 2013.
- ^ Archipelagic States Practice
- ^ Oegroseno 2014, p. 129.