The International Maritime Organization

The IMO was established by a convention in Geneva in 1948 and first met in 1959. It was created as the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) and renamed in 1982. Its purpose, as summarized by the convention, is

"to provide machinery for cooperation among Governments in the field of governmental regulation and practices relating to technical matters of all kinds affecting shipping engaged in international trade; to encourage and facilitate the general adoption of the highest practicable standards in matters concerning maritime safety, efficiency of navigation and prevention and control of marine pollution from ships."

—IMCO Convention 1958, Article 1(a)

Its charge has been to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping; today, that framework covers the following:

• safety
• environmental concerns
• legal matters
• technical co-operation
• maritime security
• the efficiency of shipping

The IMO is a specialized agency of the United Nations with 167 member states and three associate members. The IMO is based in the United Kingdom with around 300 international staff. The IMO's committees and sub-committees work with maritime experts from member governments and interested intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to update existing legislation or develop and adopt new regulations. Their work covers every facet of shipping.

Measures

Firstly, there are measures aimed at the prevention of accidents, including standards for:

• ship design
• construction
• equipment
• operation
• manning

These measures are covered by key treaties like:

• The Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention
• The MARPOL Convention for the prevention of pollution by ships
• The STCW Convention on standards of training for seafarers

There are also measures which recognize that accidents do happen, such as:

• rules concerning distress and safety communications
• The International Convention on Search and Rescue (SAR)
• The International Convention of Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response, and Co-operation

Thirdly are conventions which establish compensation and liability regimes:

• The International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage
• the convention establishing the International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage
• The Athens Convention covering liability and compensation for passengers at sea

Member states are responsible for the inspection and monitoring of compliance. A Voluntary IMO Member State Audit Scheme may be adopted to enhance implementation of IMO standards by a member state. The first audits under the Voluntary IMO Member State Audit Scheme were completed at the end of 2006. The IMO mission statement—"Safe, Secure and Efficient Shipping on Clean Oceans"—summarizes the IMO's role in ensuring that lives at sea are not put at risk and that the marine environment is not polluted by shipping.

History

Shipping regulations date back to maritime treaties of the 19^th century. The later Titanic disaster in 1912 incited the first Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention, which remains the most important maritime safety treaty. The IMO's first task was to adopt a new version of the SOLAS Convention, which it did in 1960. While the system of measuring the tonnage of ships was revised, the IMO turned its attention to facilitation of international maritime traffic, load lines, and the carriage of dangerous goods.

In the late 1960s pollution became an issue. The 1967 Terry Canyon disaster, in which 120,000 tons of oil were spilled, demonstrated the scale of the problem. The IMO then introduced a series of measures designed to prevent tanker accidents and to minimize their consequences. It also tackled the environmental threat caused by routine operations such as the cleaning of oil cargo tanks and the disposal of engine room wastes—by tonnage a bigger menace than accidental pollution. The most important of all those measures was the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 relating thereto (MARPOL 73/78). It covers not only accidental and operational oil pollution but also pollution by chemicals, goods in packaged form, sewage, garbage, and air pollution.

The IMO was also given in the late 1960s the task of establishing a system for providing compensation to those who had suffered financially as a result of pollution. Two treaties were adopted, in 1969 and 1971, which enabled victims of oil pollution to obtain compensation much more simply and quickly than had been possible before. Both treaties were amended in 1992, and again in 2000, to increase the limits of compensation payable to victims of pollution.

In the 1970s a global search and rescue system was initiated, with the establishment of the International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO), which has greatly improved the provision of radio and other messages to ships. The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) was adopted in 1988 and began to be phased in from 1992. In February 1999, the GMDSS became fully operational, so that now a ship that is in distress anywhere in the world can be virtually guaranteed assistance, even if the ship's crew do not have time to radio for help, as the message will be transmitted automatically.

On February 1, 1997, the 1995 amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW) for Seafarers, 1978, entered into force. They greatly improve seafarer standards and, for the first time, give the IMO itself powers to check government actions with parties required to submit information to the IMO regarding their compliance with the convention.

Recent Work

Two initiatives in the 1990s are especially important to the human element in shipping. On July 1, 1998, the International Safety Management (ISM) Code entered into force and became applicable to:

• passenger ships
• oil and chemical tankers
• bulk carriers
• gas carriers
• cargo high speed craft of 500+ gross tonnage
• mobile offshore drilling units of 500+ gross tonnage and other cargo ships (as of July 1, 2002)

New conventions relating to the marine environment were adopted in the early 2000s, including one on anti-fouling systems (AFS 2001) and ballast water management (BWM 2004). The 2000s also have seen a focus on maritime security, with the entry into force in July 2004 of a new, comprehensive security regime for international shipping, including the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code, made mandatory under amendments to SOLAS adopted in 2002.

In 2005, the IMO adopted amendments to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts (SUA) Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, 1988 and its related Protocol (the 2005 SUA Protocols), which amongst other things, introduce the right of a State Party desires to board a ship flying the flag of another State Party when the requesting Party has reasonable grounds to suspect that the ship or a person on board the ship is, has been, or is about to be involved in, the commission of an offense under the Convention.

The IMO released the latest edition of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code in 2006. First published in 1965, the IMDG Code has become the mandatory framework for all aspects of handling dangerous goods and marine pollutants in sea transport. Although it is directed primarily at sea transport, the provisions of the IMDG Code may affect a whole range of industries and services. The IMDG Code contains authoritative advice on classification, stowage, segregation, packing, labeling, terminology and emergency response action which may be useful to manufacturers, packers, shippers, and feeder services such as road, rail, and port authorities. The 2006 Edition of the code may be used as a substitute for the previous edition starting January 1, 2007, and will enter into force January 1, 2008.