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GLOBAL MARITIME REGULATORY SYSTEM

A] SOLAS

The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) is an international maritime treaty which sets minimum safety standards in the construction, equipment and operation of merchant ships. The convention requires signatory flag states to ensure that ships flagged by them comply with at least these standards.

The current version of SOLAS is the 1974 version, known as SOLAS 1974, which came into force on 25 May 1980. As of November 2018, SOLAS 1974 had 164 contracting states, which flag about 99% of merchant ships around the world in terms of gross tonnage.

SOLAS 1974 requires flag states to ensure that ships flagged by them comply with the minimum safety standards in the construction, equipment and operation of merchant ships. The treaty includes articles setting out general obligations, etc., followed by an annexe divided into twelve chapters, two new chapters were added in 2016 and 2017. Of these, chapter five (often called 'SOLAS V') is the only one that applies to all vessels on the sea, including private yachts and small craft on local trips as well as to commercial vessels on international passages. Many countries have turned these international requirements into national laws so that anybody on the sea who is in breach of SOLAS V requirements may find themselves subject to legal proceedings.

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 B)  MARPOL

MARPOL is the main international convention aimed at the prevention of pollution from ships caused by operational or accidental causes. It was adopted at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 1973. The Protocol of 1978 was adopted in response to a number of tanker accidents in 1976–1977. The 1978 Protocol was absorbed into the parent Convention and the combined instrument entered into force in 1983. In 1997, a Protocol was adopted to amend the Convention and a new Annex VI was added, which came into force in May 2005. The technical requirements of MARPOL are included in six separate Annexes:

· Annex I—Regulations for the Prevention of Pollution by Oil

· Annex II—Regulations for the Control of Pollution by Noxious Liquid Substances in Bulk

· Annex III—Prevention of Pollution by Harmful Substances Carried in Sea in Packaged Form

· Annex IV—Prevention of Pollution by Sewage from Ships

· Annex V—Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from Ships

· Annex VI—Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships

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C) STCW

STCW stands for Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping. The reason for them is, among other things, to keep you, a seafarer, safe while at sea.

The standards were first adopted in 1978; to come into force they had to be ratified by 25 nations, with the condition that these nations had at least 25% of the gross world tonnage of ships 100 gross tons or more. The standards came into effect in April 1984 when the condition was met. Amendments were made in 1995 that came into force in February 1997. Further amendments were adopted in 2010 and came into force in January 2012. As of 2018, 164 nations, representing 99.2 percent of world shipping tonnage, have ratified the STCW.

The standards are enforced by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which was created in 1948 and came into force in 1958. In addition to enforcing the STCW, the IMO has created and/or oversees numerous international agreements concerning the seas, including the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), the International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO), and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts (SUA) Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation.

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D) MLC

The Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) is an international agreement of the International Labour Organisation (‘ILO’) which sets out seafarers’ rights to decent conditions of work.  It is sometimes called the ‘Seafarers’ Bill of Rights’.  It applies to all seafarers, including those with jobs in hotel and other passenger services on cruise ships and commercial yachts, In 2013 the MLC became binding law for 30 countries.

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