UN Experts Warn Against Rushing Deep-Sea Mining Rules

The call comes ahead of the 31st session of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which is negotiating a potential mining code for the deep seabed.

United Nations human rights experts have urged governments to ensure that any new regulations governing deep-sea mining are firmly grounded in international law and the precautionary principle, warning that the ocean floor is one of the planet’s most fragile and least understood ecosystems.

The call comes ahead of the 31st session of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which is negotiating a potential mining code for the deep seabed.

“The deep seabed is not an industrial frontier,” the experts said. “It is one of the most fragile and least understood ecosystems on Earth, and its protection is a legal obligation under international law and human rights law.”

Legal Duties Go Beyond Environmental Policy

The experts stressed that States have binding obligations under customary international law to protect the marine environment and the global climate system — duties owed to the international community as a whole.

Recent advisory opinions by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) reinforce these responsibilities, requiring stringent due diligence to prevent environmental harm.

The recently entered-into-force Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement further strengthens protections for marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

“All these international obligations must be considered and respected by the International Seabed Authority,” the experts said.

Precautionary Principle Central

With scientific uncertainty surrounding the long-term impacts of deep-sea mining, the experts emphasised that the precautionary principle must guide decision-making.

“Courts have concluded that the precautionary principle must be respected when there is scientific uncertainty about how to effectively prevent significant or irreversible harm,” they noted.

Emerging research suggests that mining for critical minerals in the deep ocean could:

• Cause severe and potentially irreversible biodiversity loss

• Destroy seafloor habitats

• Disperse toxic pollutants

• Release stored carbon

• Disrupt ocean carbon sequestration processes

The deep seabed is believed to host the majority of the ocean’s estimated one million species and acts as the planet’s largest carbon sink — making it central to global climate regulation.

Mining operations are also energy-intensive and risk increasing greenhouse gas emissions, compounding the climate crisis and its associated human rights impacts.

Human Rights at Stake

The experts warned that environmental degradation in the deep sea would directly affect human rights — particularly for Indigenous Peoples, small-scale fishers and Small Island Developing States that rely heavily on healthy marine ecosystems.

“Threats to the deep sea are threats to human rights,” they said.

Rights potentially affected include:

• The right to food

• The right to health

• The right to a healthy environment

• Cultural rights

• The right to a safe and stable climate

Businesses involved in seabed exploration and extraction also have responsibilities under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to prevent and address environmental and human rights harms.

Governance Must Be Transparent and Science-Based

The experts called for any deep-seabed regulatory framework to be transparent, inclusive, participatory and grounded in science, with a clear orientation toward safeguarding the rights of present and future generations.

“Marine activities that pose significant risks for humanity must not be authorised,” they said.

Describing the deep seabed as the “common heritage of humankind,” the experts stressed that governance must prioritise protection over short-term industrial or commercial interests.

As negotiations continue at the ISA, the intervention signals mounting international pressure to ensure that any mining code reflects not only economic considerations but also climate science, biodiversity protection and human rights law.