Actually, that's not what this is about at all. What this treaty is about, at it's base, is money. The third world wants to extract a tax (tribute, payment, whatever the hell you want to call it), from those who exploit the resources of the open ocean.
It goes like this: Exxon build, at huge expense, a rig in the open ocean - outside of any nation's territorial waters. They hit a big pool of oil, and begin to pump it out. Every little third world dictatorship on the planet wants to get a cut of the profits because this oil at the bottom of the ocean - that they did nothing to extract - and took none of the risks inherrant in drilling - is supposedly owned by the world at large, and is a jointly held asset of all the nations of the earth. As allways, it's all about money. They want money for nothing. This is just business as usual, and is yet another way to extract money from us.
They want to do the same thing with the moon, and from what I understand, this treaty is designed to set precedent for that. Someday, man will mine the moon and asteroids. (One moderate-sized asteroid would provide as much metal as has been mined in the entire history of the earth.) The U.N. wants to make sure that those of us who foot the bill and take the risks do not profit from it without them getting a cut.
Yes, I figured that. My reply was sly humor. But you are correct. The UN has become the god-father and executive branch of the international mafia.