Archipelagic Sea Lanes Passage
The UNCLOS article 53 regime for passage through archipelagic waters, how IMO adopts the lanes, and Indonesia's partial system.
Archipelagic sea lanes passage is the right, under article 53 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, of continuous, expeditious and unobstructed transit through the archipelagic waters and adjacent territorial sea of an archipelagic state, in the normal mode of navigation. It is the archipelagic counterpart to transit passage through international straits, and like transit passage it may not be suspended.
An archipelagic state may designate sea lanes and air routes suitable for such passage, but the designation is not unilateral: article 53(9) requires proposals to be referred to the competent international organization, which is IMO, and only lanes adopted there may be designated. Where a state has not designated lanes, the right may be exercised through the routes normally used for international navigation.
Indonesia’s system, adopted by IMO resolution MSC.72(69) on 19 May 1998 and enacted domestically as Government Regulation No. 37 of 2002, is a partial designation covering three north to south lanes: ALKI I via Karimata, the Java Sea and the Sunda Strait ; ALKI II via the Makassar and Lombok Straits; and ALKI III with three branches through the eastern archipelago. Because it is partial, archipelagic sea lanes passage continues on the normal routes that were not designated. The full article will cover the article 53 rights and duties, the distinction from innocent passage, the IMO adoption procedure in resolution MSC.71(69), and the operational consequences of diverting from a Part III strait into archipelagic waters.