On April 17, 2025, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) submitted [3] its Annual Report for 2024 to the Thirty-Fifth Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which took place in New York from June 23-27 2025. The report covered the Tribunal's activities from January 1 to December 31, 2024. It included information on judicial proceedings, organizational structure, administrative works, and capacity-building activities.

The report highlighted the Tribunal’s Advisory Opinion [4] in the Request submitted by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law [5], which was delivered on May 21, 2024. In that advisory opinion, the Tribunal confirmed that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions constitute pollution of the marine environment and elaborated the parties’ obligations under UNCLOS, including due diligence, environmental impact assessment, cooperation duties, obligations to protect marine ecosystems, assistance to developing states, and monitoring and reporting obligations. The report also provided updates on the ongoing proceedings in the The M/T “Heroic Idun” Case [6] (Marshall Islands/Equatorial Guinea) and The “Zheng He” Case [7] (Luxembourg v. Mexico).

In addition to judicial activities, the report covered other matters considered by the Tribunal. These included the appointment of arbitrators, developments concerning the budget and financial matters, staff recruitment and administrative reforms, updates on publications and library resources, facilities and building maintenance, relations with the United Nations and the host state, and the expansion of capacity-building programs.