A new, all-inclusive security system for international shipping is on the horizon following the adoption of a series of measures by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).The new rules — designed to strengthen maritime security and prevent and suppress acts of terrorism against shipping — were adopted during the Dec. 9-13 Diplomatic Conference of Contracting Governments to the 1974 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in London. The fresh procedures represent the culmination of just over a year’s intense work by IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee and its Intersessional Working Group since the terrorist atrocities in the United States in September 2001.
Conference attendees included 108 contracting governments to the 1974 SOLAS Convention, observers from two IMO member states and observers from the two IMO associate members. United Nations specialized agencies, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental international organizations also sent observers to the conference.
SIU Secretary-Treasurer David Heindel, who also serves as vice chairman of the Seafarers’ Section of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), represented the union. Bill Eglinton, director of training at the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education, represented the school.
The conference adopted a number of amendments to the 1974 SOLAS pact, the most sweeping of which is the new International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code). The Code contains detailed security-related requirements for governments, port authorities and shipping companies in a mandatory section (Part A), together with a series of guidelines about how to meet these requirements in a second, non-mandatory section (Part B). Also adopted were a series of resolutions designed to add weight to the amendments, encourage the application of the measures to ships and port facilities not covered by the Code and pave the way for future work on the subject.
“It’s amazing how swiftly these amendments were passed,” noted Heindel. “Normally, it would take five years to produce this amount of work.
“Although many countries contributed to the final document,” he continued, “(U.S. Coast Guard) Admiral Paul Pluta, his staff and the U.S. delegation deserve our gratitude for their efforts in putting a lot of momentum behind these measures. Certainly, it will go a long way in ensuring safety at sea.”
Eglinton added, “I believe the IMO has addressed every conceivable aspect of shipping which might possibly have an inherent weak area as it relates to terrorism. The ITF, along with U.S. maritime labor, was able to put forward language in the Code and resolutions which hopefully will guarantee seafarers shore leave while living in a heightened maritime security world. In addition, the preamble to the Code also includes a strong statement on shore leave for merchant mariners. These new SOLAS regulations, along with the newly adopted ISPS Code, should go a long way toward increasing security aboard our ships and in our ports and around the entire world.”
(Additional details appear in the printed version of the January 2003 Seafarers LOG.)
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