Today, the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Maritime Labor Convention, 2006, (MLC, 2006) will enter into force in the first 30 States to ratify the Convention, with other ILO Member States scheduled to bring it into force over the next 12 months. The MLC, 2006 is an important international regulatory instrument that will provide protection at work for more than 1.5 million seafarers who serve on the world’s fleets. Widely acclaimed as the "fourth pillar" of the international regulatory regime for quality shipping, and complementing the three key Conventions of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the MLC, 2006 sets out seafarers’ rights to decent conditions of work on a wide range of subjects…