ABSTRACT
Mozambique is a sovereign coastal State, facing the Mozambique Channel, the Indian Ocean branch. The definition of the legal continental shelf depicting a morphology of the submerged prolongation of the Mozambique's land territory (land mass) qualifies Mozambique to implement the provisions of article 76 of UNCLOS. In this maritime space, Mozambique has demonstrated its entitlement through the technical-scientific evidence to extend its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. That exercise had ended on 7 July 2010 with the submission to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf of a proposal for the extension of its continental shelf, outlining an area equivalent to 1/5 of the total area of Mozambique's land territory. This outlined area is still subject to an examination by CLCS to issue recommendations to Mozambique for the delineation of the outer limits of the extended continental shelf, as established in paragraph 8 of article 76 of UNCLOS.
