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We all come across so many IMO resolution, conventions and circulars while
being in shipping industry.
1. Resolution
At IMO, Maritime resolutions are issued by the Assembly, The council and by
each of the committee.
Each committee brings resolutions to amend part of International convention that
they are associated with.
Like Maritime safety committee handles conventions related to safety. The most
popular being International convention for safety of life at Sea (SOLAS) and
STCW convention.
XYZ.123(34)
Where the initial letter(s) shows who has passed this resolution.
The letter can be A (for Assembly), C (for Council), MSC (For Maritime safety
committee), MEPC (for Maritime environment pollution committee), FAL
(Facilitation committee) or LEG (legal Committee).
The next number shows the resolution number and it is in chronological order.
The number in the bracket shows the sessions in which this resolution was
adopted. So the resolution MSC.374(93) refers to the MSC resolution number 374
which was adopted in the 93rd session of the MSC.
Why to amend a convention
The only permanent thing in this world is Change. And the way we move our
cargoes through sea and the way ships are operating at sea is changing every single
day.
A convention passed 30 years back may have many elements which are not
applicable today. Same way, We might discover new strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats, which were not the part of original convention.
Take an example of Security. Post year 2001, suddenly the world realised a new
threat to the shipping which was security. And to address that, we could either
bring a security convention or amend an existing convention to include security.
So unless the new identified threats are too unique to be included in the existing
conventions, it is always better to amemd the existing convention.
Take another example of Convention of pollution prevention at sea (MARPOL).
Pollution was totally different from safety and so instead of including MARPOL
in SOLAS convention, we got new convention called MARPOL.
Also take an example of Ballast water convention. The topic of ballast water was
much debatable. The debate was on its inclusion in the MARPOL as another annex
or as a stand alone convention.
Even though ballast water was considered to be a kind of pollution but at the end it
was agreed that the ballast water is a unique area from other pollutions and hence
instead of including it in MARPOL, a new convention was adopted.
See the results, ballast water convention was adopted in 2004 and as of 1st Jan
2016, ballast water convention is still not ratified.
Clearly in the first option any contracting government can propose an amendment
to the secretary general.
SG would pass the proposal to the MSC or MEPC for review. MSC or MEPC in
consultation with appropriate sub-committee would draft and submit the resolution
for adoption.
The advantage of the second option is that it is the faster way of proposing and
adopting an amendment to the convention.
Adoption of a resolution
Resolutions are adopted by voting in Maritime safety committee or Maritime
Environment Protection Committee. There are 2 conditions for a resolution to be
adopted
1) the first condition would be met considering there would be high chances of the
one-third of the governments present for voting.
2) The second condition should also be met as all of the one-third governments had
given the concurrence to the amendment.
This is the reason, the proposal by the conference would be adopted faster.
The process of acceptance of a resolution was a tedious one but IMO did a great
job in amending the process itself.
Earlier the acceptance of a resolution was linked with the number of governments
that has accepted it. IMO would wait for years to have the numbers on their side to
implement a resolution.
This was due to many governments not responding because of neither agree nor
disagree situation.
And the governments had their reasons to be in that situations. Most of the times
the governments were not sure if
1. the amendment brought by the resolution are in best interest of their country.
Whatever the reasons, but the acceptance of resolutions used to take a lot of time.
IMO then introduced the tacit way of acceptance of a resolution. Even though not
all the resolutions are accepted with tacit acceptance procedures but most of them
are.
For example Marpol convention as per article 16 f(ii) gives authority to MEPC to
decide if the amendment will be accepted by tacit acceptance or explicit
acceptance.
The committee decides the agreed interval during adoption of resolution. However
there is minimum interval that is set in respective conventions.
For example as per Marpol convention, the minimum interval between adoption
and acceptance has to be 10 months. Same way, as per SOLAS the minimum
interval should not be less than one year.
SOLAS convention has also specified maximum interval between adoption and
acceptance as 2 years.
2. contracting governments that constitutes not less than 50% of the world gross
tonnage
At the end of the deadline, if a contracting government has not taken any action
(accepting or rejecting the proposed resolution), it is implied (tacit) that
government has accepted the resolution.
Once a resolution is accepted by tacit means or otherwise, it then enter into force.
But there is a time specified in respective conventions on when the accepted
resolution would enter into force.
For example as per SOLAS and MARPOL convention, a resolution would enter
into force 6 months after it has been accepted.
2. Convention
Now that we know how a resolution amends a maritime convention, Its time to
take a dive into the what conventions actually are.
What is a convention
There are many different ways to define a convention. A convention is a formal
agreement between states.
There are number of conventions that IMO has given to maritime industry. To
Name a few, these are
International convention on safety of life at sea.
FAL convention
Loadline convention
Salvage convention
SOLAS convention is not a law itself. But when a country adopts and includes it as
legislation in their country, it becomes law for them. UK, Singapore and India have
included it as legislation called Merchant Shipping act. USA call it CFR.
Discussions on these incidents and research studies in shipping and other related
industries is part of sessions of IMO committees and sub-committees.
Once IMO identifies a need for a new convention, the respective committee
assisted by various sub-committees work on adopting the convention.
All these ways concerns the legality of procedure so we will not dig deep into it.
But the idea is that the states need to be ready for the new convention and they
should give their consent for that by one of these ways. When a convention is
adopted, it is usually agreed on how many states need to ratify the convention for it
to come in force.
For example, the Ballast water convention requires at least 30 states to ratify which
should represent at least 35% of the world gross tonnage.
Ballast water convention is just close to retification. On this date even though
forty-seven countries have ratified the convention, their combined gross tonnage
only represent the 34.56% of the world tonnage.
3. Circulars
Circulars related to Salvage, SUA, Ballast water management, GMDSS and STCW
all are part of the circulars issued at IMO. But the most important or rather the one
that seafarers are more associated with are MSC and MEPC circulars.
These are the circulars issued by MSC and MEPC respectevely. The former being
circulars related to safety matter and latter related to pollution.
It may also give latest incident summary. In short it is running log of important
communication from ship to shore.
IMO circulars serves similar purpose. Among other thing, the circular are used for
clarification, interpretation or guidance on its various codes and conventions.
We can now looks into how MSC and MEPC circulars look like.
MSC Circulars
As obvious, MSC circulars are related to the maritime safety. The MSC has
divided its circulars in six sub-categories and are numbered from one to six. Any
MSC circular number would look like this
In this MSC ofcourse denotes that it is circular issued by Maritime safety committe
of IMO.
The number 1 denotes the sub-category of the circular. Circ. tells us that it is a
circular and the number in the last is the circular number which is numbered in
chronological order.
The six sub categories that MSC circulars are divided into are
MEPC Circular
The number next is the number of sub-category that the circular belongs to. The
letters Circ detones that it is a circular and finally the number is the circular
number which is in chronological order.
The seven Sub-categories that MEPC circulars are divided into are
MEPC.3 : Circular relating to Facilities in ports for the reception of oily wastes
from ships
MEPC.4 : Circular relating to Facilities in ports for the reception of noxious liquid
substances (NLS) residues from ships carrying chemicals in bulk
We have only discussed the MSC and MEPC circulars. But there are more than 50
categories in which IMO circular are divided.
Each category has again different sub-categories like we have for MSC and MEPC
circulars.
Conclusion
Finally to conclude in short, IMO conventions are set of rules which when adopted
by a countrys legal system, becomes law for that country.
There is a growing need to amend these conventions to keep pace with the fast
moving world and technology. The conventions are amended by the IMO
resolutions which are passed by the committees.