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ICS & CMI Update Campaign on Maritime Treaty Ratification
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) - whose member national shipowner associations represent over 80% of the world merchant fleet, and the Comité Maritime International (CMI) - the international association for maritime lawyers, have released an updated brochure to promote the importance of governments ratifying international maritime conventions, especially those adopted by the UN IMO.
The aim of the brochure 'Promoting Maritime Treaty Ratification'
is to encourage more widespread ratification of some key maritime
instruments that would benefit from a greater level of global
acceptance. This includes a number of important instruments which
have not yet received adequate ratifications from governments to
enter into force globally.
The new campaign particularly focuses on three key IMO
instruments: the Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling; the 2003
Protocol to the 1992 Civil Liability and Fund Conventions
concerning oil spill compensation; and the 2010 Protocol to the
HNS (liability) Convention.
"While the slow pace of ratification of these crucial IMO
instruments remains disappointing, there is now some cause for
optimism." explained ICS Chairman, Esben Poulsson.
"In particular, the Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling has
been ratified by the world's largest flag State, Panama, having
previously been ratified by Belgium, Denmark, France and Norway.
Turkey, a major ship recycling nation, is also expected to ratify
soon. But other IMO Member States now need to build on this
momentum or else be faced with the confusion likely to be caused
by unilateral or regional regulation."
CMI Secretary General, Rosalie Balkin, added "We are pleased to
again be co-operating with ICS on this important campaign, which
we hope will enhance the profile of some important IMO
instruments that are sometimes overlooked."
The new brochure, which can downloaded from the ICS and CMI
websites, also highlights a number of other conventions that
require wider ratification, including the IMO Ballast Water
Management Convention, which entered into force in September, and
the ILO (Revised) Seafarers' Identity Documents Convention.
The brochure also promotes several other instruments that address
international liabilities and compulsory insurance cover for
ships.
ICS and the CMI continue to emphasise that shipping is an
inherently global industry reliant on global regulatory
frameworks to operate efficiently. The alternative would be a
plethora of regional or unilateral regulations, which would lead
to chaos within the international shipping industry while
hindering the smooth flow of global trade.
Nov 13, 2017
