The IOC of UNESCO is recognized in the UN-wide system for its traditional competencies in the field of Transfer of Marine Technology (Part XIV) of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). On the occasion of its first session in 2001, the IOC’s Advisory Body of Experts on the Law of the Sea (IOC/ABE-LOS), an IOC subsidiary body whose function is to provide advice on the IOC’s role in relation to UNCLOS upon the request from the IOC governing bodies, accepted the challenge of drawing the Criteria and Guidelines on Transfer of Marine Technology (CGTMT), following the instructions set forth in Article 271 of UNCLOS: