UN General Assembly
1977

246. The sixth session of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea also ended on an inconclusive note. While the continuing deadlock in the informal negotiations tends to be disappointing, we have emphasized in the past, and we do so again, that the new international convention on the law of the sea cannot be considered in isolation from the global perspective of a new order based on equity and justice. The convention on the law of the sea, if it is to be commonly acceptable, must take into account the legitimate aspirations and interests of all the parties concerned. However, the refusal of the group of coastal States to respond to the fundamental demands of land-locked countries, such as their right to participate on an equitable basis in the exploitation of the living resources of the economic zone of adjoining coastal States and States of the same region or subregion, threatens to nullify the concept of the common heritage of mankind.