GESAMP Celebrates 50 Years in Ocean Science
When developing policies or strategies affecting the ocean, the United Nations system needs to base its work on a solid, scientific foundation.That is provided by GESAMP, a unique independent body administered by International Maritime Organization (IMO) and which, this week, is celebrating its 50th anniversary.GESAMP is the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection. It is the independent body of experts that advises the United Nations system on both on-going and newly arising marine environmental scientific issues.It's 50th anniversary was celebrated at the UN Headquarters in New York (10 September)…
IMO’s Cape Town Agreement on Protecting Fishers’ Lives
International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s Cape Town Agreement on fishing vessel safety needs to be ratified and implemented in order to save fishers’ lives. This key message was reiterated by IMO’s Sandra Allnutt during the UN Food and Agriculture (FAO) Committee on Fisheries (COFI 2018) meeting in Rome, Italy (9-13 July). The 2012 Cape Town Agreement is aimed at facilitating better control of fishing vessel safety by flag, port and coastal States. The Agreement currently has 10 Contracting States, but needs 22 for entry into force, along with a required number of aggregate fishing vessels. At the opening session of the COFI, Ms. Allnutt highlighted the positive collaboration between IMO…
ICS is Shipowners' Rep at UN Meets
At the United Nations in New York, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is representing the interests of shipowners at the opening session of a UN Preparatory Committee starting work on a new legal instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The establishment of the new UN Preparatory Committee, under the auspices of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, follows the decision of the United Nations General Assembly, in 2015, that UNCLOS should be expanded to include a new legally binding instrument on the conservation of marine life in areas beyond national jurisdiction. This is particularly relevant to shipping because the new UN instrument could include area-based management tools such as Marine Protected Areas on the high seas.
UN Agencies to Deliver as One on Mixed Migration by Sea
Several United Nations (UN) agencies have agreed to establish a mechanism to enhance existing inter-agency communication with respect to the maritime aspects of mixed migration by sea. Agencies concerned about the loss of life, injury, trauma and serious human rights violations affecting migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees traveling by sea met in London last week (March 4-5) at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Building on the Joint Statement on Protection at Sea in the Twenty-First Century…
ICS Congratulates UN Secretary General
ICS Chairman Masimichi Morooka has celebrated the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Law Of The Sea by writing to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. On behalf of the world’s shipowners, Mr Morooka extended congratulations to the UN and the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS), on the 30th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) at Montego Bay, on 10 December 1982. He said: “The enduring…
UN Atlas of the Oceans is Launched
IMO has joined with a host of other United Nations agencies and leading international scientific bodies in developing the first comprehensive real-time tool to assess the state of world's oceans. The Internet-based United Nations Atlas of the Oceans was launched on World Environment Day June 5, 2002 at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in Paris, France. More than 2½ years in development after a decade of planning, the Atlas of the Oceans represents the most ambitious global scientific information collaboration ever on-line and an international consensus-building tool expected to assist negotiations of future marine-related agreements.
IMO, UNHCR Discuss Loss of Life in Unseaworthy Craft
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are both seriously concerned about the flow of people attempting to cross to Europe in small unseaworthy craft, from, among other regions, the Mediterranean and the Eastern North Atlantic, said Mr. Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, Secretary-General of IMO, following a recent meeting at IMO headquarters in London with the UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Ms. Erika Feller. The small craft involved are often precariously overloaded, leading to circumstances requiring consequential search and rescue operations, as well as reported problems in disembarking the people involved, who may include undocumented migrants, as well as asylum seekers and refugees.
