Energy News Beat
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the Comité Maritime International (CMI), a body responsible for drafting many maritime law conventions, have launched an updated campaign to get governments to ratify urgent maritime treaties.
“For a global industry, comprehensively regulated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and other United Nations bodies, it is critical that the Conventions are widely ratified in order to ensure that the same regulations apply to all ships in international trade during all parts of their voyage,” the two organisations said today in a release.
The renewed campaign comes at a time when the US under Donald Trump is increasingly being seen as tearing up the old international rulebook.
The international maritime conventions strongly encouraged to be ratified by governments by ICS and CMI as an urgent priority are the IMO Nairobi Convention on the Removal of Wrecks (Nairobi WRC), 2007, IMO 2010 Protocol to the International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea (HNS), 1996, the IMO Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (Hong Kong), 2009, and the United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships, 2023, also known as the Beijing Convention.
A global industry needs global regulations
The purpose of the campaign is for ICS and CMI members, which represent national shipowner associations and national maritime law associations respectively, to engage with their governments to urge them to ratify these conventions where they are not currently in force.
“Our industry is dependent on a global regulatory system to operate efficiently and safely. Global standards must be uniformly applied and enforced worldwide to prevent significant challenges arising, including a patchwork of unilateral regulations and inferior levels of safety and environmental protection. It is fundamental that the same regulations are equally applied to all ships engaged in international trade, and that the same rules apply during the entire voyage. A global industry needs global regulations,” commented Kiran Khosla, principal director covering legal at the ICS.
Ann Fenech, president of the CMI, added: “Today’s challenging international scene and geopolitical developments in which shipowners, charterers, cargo owners, financiers, flag administrations, and maritime players generally are navigating, make it all the more important, now more than ever before, that the maritime law and regulations in different jurisdictions provide legal certainty and uniformity.”
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