MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine jurist chosen for international Sea Law court

Armas Pfirter has a PhD with a specialization in Sea Law

Argentine jurist Frida Armas Pfirter has been appointed as a judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, where she will serve until 2032, it was reported in New York.

Armas Pfirter, 65, from Santa Fe, who has a background in public international law, received 154 votes at the 30th Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Until now she was serving as general coordinator of the National Commission of the Outer Limit of the Argentine Continental Shelf.

Her nomination had been made proposed by Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero in May 2022. “Argentina proposes the best candidate it has for a body that represents us and it is very relevant not only because the figure of a great official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such as Frida Armas, is included, but also because she represents the vocation that our country has permanently had in the Tribunal of the Sea,” Cafiero said at the time.

The Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is an independent judicial body established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and is composed of 21 judges.

Other Argentines to have served on the court are Elsa Kelly (2011-2020) and Hugo Caminos (1996-2011).

Armas Pfirter received her law degree from the Argentine Catholic University in Rosario. She later obtained a PhD in International Law from the University of Buenos Aires, with a specialization in Sea Law.

In 2022 she was appointed as a Full Scholar at the Academy of Law and Social Sciences of Buenos Aires. She is a Conciliator and Arbitrator of the CONVEMAR dispute settlement system and a member of the “Advisory Council of the United Nations Decade for the Oceans”, UNESCO-IOC.

For more than 25 years she led the interdisciplinary team that carried out the process of delimitation and demarcation of the outer limit of the Argentine continental shelf (COPLA).

The Foreign Ministry stated: “Armas Pfirter has the professional and academic strength of excellence that, together with a great capacity to find innovative solutions within the framework of the CONVEMAR, will allow her to face the current challenges posed by the oceans and the law of the sea at a global level”.

“Her incorporation to the Tribunal will bring an open approach to dispute settlement, thanks to her versatility, teamwork, and ability to generate consensus,” it added.