Critical Analysis of the Regulation Regarding Traditional Fishermen in Grey-Area of Indonesia-Malaysia

Abstract

With the capture of Indonesian traditional fishermen by Malaysia without any clarity of violations as they operated in the grey area, Indonesia needs to act adequately and conduct legal protection. This is based on international agreement of UNCLOS 1982, which has been ratified by both Indonesia and Malaysia. This indicates that international law had been regulating maritime delimitation, and in case of unfinished arrangement, dispute resolution procedure as stated in Chapter XV of UNCLOS 1982 could be utilised, i.e. special regulation by temporary arrangement. Thus, during the final adjustment period, biological natural resources within the overlapping areas could still be utilised by traditional fishermen of both countries. Keywords–Grey area, International agreement, Legal protection,Traditional fishermen