Call to create new UN body to focus on maritime security

A new 77-page report from the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) has suggested the UN needs a whole new body to address growing maritime security concerns around the world. 

The report suggests the UN lacks an institutional structure to address maritime security comprehensively. 

“Neither the General Assembly’s ocean affairs and law of the sea process, the selected focus of the Security Council, nor the assemblies of the United Nations agencies proactive in maritime security, such as the [International Maritime Organization] or [the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime], have as sufficient mandate or legitimacy on their own to deal with maritime security challenges comprehensively and to bring strategic coherence to the United Nations efforts,” the report suggests. 

The UNIDIR is a voluntarily funded, autonomous institute within the UN. 

“An institutional mechanism will firstly have to address the task of more effectively mainstreaming maritime security across the United Nations system,” the report advises. 

“The acceleration of maritime activities and humanity’s growing dependency on the seas calls for more structured and sustained efforts to address maritime security within the United Nations system,” Dr Christian Bueger, lead author of the report, told Splash. “This report provides a roadmap for developing those vital new approaches.”