Main points
- The ISA currently lacks clear, consistent rules for how private-sector contractors may participate in ISA processes. Recent applications for NGO observer status from contractor-affiliated entities have exposed gaps in the ISA’s Rules of Procedure and inconsistencies in current practice.
- Contractors are also crucial operational partners for the ISA, particularly in providing scientific data and technical information to assist the ISA develop its own knowledge about the emerging deep seabed mining industry. However, unlike civil society observers, contractors have commercial interests in mining activities and reliance on contractor-generated information creates risks of bias.
- Private-sector contractors currently have equal, and in some cases better, levels of access within the ISA than NGO observers. This includes participation through sponsoring state delegations, intersessional working groups, and direct engagement with the ISA via annual reporting and annual contractor meetings. In practice, some ISA processes create privileged avenues of access linked to contractors’ specialised expertise.
- Establishing a new ‘observer’ category for private sector contractors would not, on its own, necessarily resolve concerns related to contractors participating within the ISA via informal or opaque ways. Other institutional measures are required to avoid inappropriate informal channels of private influence and reputational risks to the ISA, including policies on public disclosure, conflict-of-interest, and the regulation of lobbying.
