be exercised extraterritorially. One of such exceptional events is that in which the agents of a State exercise, outside its territory, authority and control over individuals located in another State. In this situation, to cite the words of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a State may occur if the following is verified: “The exercise of authority over individuals by agents of a State even though does not occur in its territory.” 54 87. However, apart from this classic case which recognized the exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction by States, a very particular phenomenon has arisen under international environmental law with regard to the protection of the different oceans and seas, which leads us to wonder whether, at the present time, there is another exception to the principle of the territoriality of “jurisdiction” pursuant to the Pact of San José. 88. In 1974, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched the Regional Seas Programme and, currently, more than 140 States participate in its activities. Under this program, the protection of marine resources is implemented by a series of agreements and action plans adopted by the different States for the benefit of present and future generations. Each of these agreements is aimed at the protection of a specific marine area in which the territories and inhabitants of different States converge. In the Caribbean, the States of the Region have adopted the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region which seeks to include all the different aspects of the deterioration of the environment and to meet the special needs of the Region. 89. The signature of the said Convention and its widespread acceptance by the different States of the Region is, without doubt, one of the most important advances in legislation in favor of the protection of the marine environment of the Caribbean – natural habitat of all those who reside on its coasts and islands and on which their living conditions and life projects depend. 90. In order to protect the region’s marine environment, the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean establishes a series of obligations applicable to a specific geographical space called “the Convention area.” One of these obligations, perhaps the most important and the most general, consists in, “individually or jointly, tak[ing] all appropriate measures in conformity with international law and in accordance with this Convention and those of its protocols in force to which they are parties to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the Convention area and to ensure sound environmental management, using for this purpose the best practicable means at their disposal and in accordance with their capabilities.” 91. According to this instrument, the States parties to the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region have the obligation to 54 Ibid. para. 99. 60