In November 1967, the Maltese diplomat, Arvid Pardo, addressed the United Nations with a remarkable speech that shaped the laws governing the sea.
Pardo's message is immortalised in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was adopted in 1982, and is now the fundamental legislation governing difficult topics such as deep sea mining.
Artemis Irvine spoke to Christina Pardo Menez, Arvid Pardo's daughter, and his friend David Attard.
A Whistledown production for the BBC World Service.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
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(Photo: Arvid Pardo. Credit: Elisabeth Mann Borgese fonds, Dalhousie University Archives)