Dear President Obama,

I write to you to urge you to inaugurate World Oceans Day on June 8th by taking leadership and speaking out in support of U.S. ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The first ever World Oceans Day will focus global attention on the challenges facing our oceans. This day provides you with the ideal moment both to demonstrate American environmental leadership and to promote our country's security and economic interests.

You have already indicated support for the Law of the Sea convention and your State Department has listed it on the Treaty Priority List for the 111th Congress. The question is not "if", but "when" you will urge the Senate to take action. At this moment we finally have the right Congress, certainly the right President, and broad support across all of the relevant sectors of our society. I believe now is the time for you to engage.

Joining the Law of the Sea convention, widely supported on both sides of the aisle, would, to use your words, advance "the long tradition of bipartisan foreign policy that has been the hallmark of America...." The United States has not joined a major multilateral treaty since the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997. Ratification of the Law of the Sea will demonstrate U.S. commitment to working cooperatively with the international community and prepare the ground for ratification of other important treaties, including the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination in All Forms Against Women.

As you well know, the Law of the Sea convention has been endorsed by prominent leaders ranging from former President George W. Bush and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and by organizations ranging from the American Petroleum Institute to the World Wildlife Fund.

However, the Senate is not likely to adopt any major treaty without your Presidential leadership in raising the issue and pushing it to the floor. This should be done before the August recess. The Senate will be busy with many competing priorities in the Fall. Delaying beyond that would put us into 2010, and we witnessed in 2008 how difficult it is to advance a multilateral convention in the highly political context of an election year. While there will never be a convenient time to engage in this issue, I cannot think of a more appropriate time to do so.

Mr. President, by failing to ratify the treaty until now, we have prevented ourselves from taking advantage of its benefits, including the ability to stake claims in the resource-rich Arctic seabed. Delaying ratification postpones the expansion of U.S. control over an area larger than the continental United States. Holding up ratification defers assurance of U.S. rights to navigate the world's oceans safely and freely, one of the priorities that drove the U.S. to take a leadership role in the treaty's development. Slow ratification impedes our nation's capacity to protect marine life, conduct research, and prevent marine pollution in order to keep the seas clean and safe for future generations.

Our nation has waited too long to reap the many advantages that membership in this convention will provide. On June 8th, as the international community celebrates the first annual World Oceans Day, there is no better time to announce your support for U.S. ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. Now is the time to engage members of your administration to clear the path for rapid U.S. ratification of this treaty. Mr. Obama, please steer the Law of the Sea towards ratification and urge the Senate to act before Congress goes home for the summer.

Respectfully,

Don Kraus, Chief Executive Officer
Citizens for Global Solutions

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Want to take action?  Go to http://globalsolutions.org/action/oceansday