UN General Assembly
1989

Let me explain what has prompted me to begin with this reminder. Of the specific issues with which my country has mostly keenly involved itself - from the care of the elderly to the need to curtail the traffic in armaments - from the very first years of our presence here, there is probably none with which the name of Malta has come to be more intimately associated than that of the common management of extraterritorial spaces. I am using this term deliberately. I am doing so because unfortunately the concept which we introduced and which has been incorporated as a foundation-stone in the law of the sea Convention and used in many other United Nations-sponsored treaties, charters, declarations and other juridical and policy instruments - the common heritage of mankind - continues to be misunderstood. It is not however misunderstood by the Secretary-General, and its essence is very accurately captured in the phrase he uses in his report where he refers to "common management ... reflecting a community of interest among Member States".