UN General Assembly
1979

337. In the context of the United Nations, my Government hopes to put the finishing touches to the process of ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in the hope that we can deposit our instruments of ratification before the end of this year. 338. In conclusion, I should like to state that Honduras has continued to give close attention to the tasks of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. We hope that not only will institutions be consolidated—which, like the 12-mile limit of the territorial sea and the 200-mile exclusive economic zone are part of international customary law—but also that machinery will be set up which, in a truly international regime, will ensure the exploration and exploitation of the sea-bed as the common heritage of mankind.