IMO boosts, strengthens seafarers’ pact, code

The International Maritime Organization will strengthen and overhaul a three-decade-old seafarers’ convention and code to improve sailors capacity and protect them against security risks, such as recurring piracy attacks off Somalia.

Amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW Convention), and its associated Code, will be adopted in Manila at the five-day diplomatic conference that began Monday and will conclude Friday.

The proposed amendments mark the first major revision of the two instruments since those, completely revising the original 1978 Convention, adopted in 1995.

“It has been more than thirty years since the convention this conference has met to comprehensively revise was adopted in 1978. At the time, it marked a significant milestone in IMO’s history as the STCW Convention was the first ever to deal with the human element. It did so by setting uniform, global standards for maritime training, certification and watchkeeping applicable to seafarers from all over the world,” said IMO Secretary General Efthimios Mitropoulos in his opening address.

“In the light, however, of significant changes in the shipping industry since the convention came into force in 1984, it became apparent, by the mid-1990s, that, were it to serve its purpose successfully, there was an urgent need for a complete overhaul of its requirements,” he added.

In 1995, an international conference, which IMO convened, resulted in an extensive array of amendments, including the emergence of the STCW Code. The requirements laid down standards of competence to ensure that seafarers, in addition to possessing the required knowledge, also have the appropriate skills to carry out their assigned duties on board ship.

“By following, and paying due attention to, evolving trends, challenges and demands faced by those working at the sharp end of the industry, we, at IMO and in the maritime industry at large, can assure them that regulators do understand the nature of seafaring and the pressures that come with the profession,” Mitropoulos said.

Mitropoulos said the IMO approaches its standard-setting task with a “genuine sympathy” for the daily work of seafarers, who are often confronted with unique physical and other hazards, some largely unknown until recently, such as unwarranted detention when their ships are involved in accidents, denial of shore leave for security purposes, abandonment in ports far away from their home countries and, in particular, pirate attacks –a priority concern for the organization.

The IMO chief paid tribute to Filipino seafarers, particularly the 65 sailors languishing in the hands of their captors in Somalia, whom he referred to as “unsung heroes” of the maritime industry.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out, in particular, to the 65 Filipinos from 4 ships, who are kept hostage by Somali pirates. May they, and all other hostages, be released and repatriated soon,” he said. “We cannot but turn our thoughts and prayers also to those Filipino seafarers, who lost their lives in the line of duty – and to their families, who were deprived of their natural protectors. This, unfortunately, is the fate of the sea, as the Philippines, a maritime nation of a thousand islands, knows only too well.”

The Philippines is the world’s leading supplier of ship crew with over 350,000 sailors, or about a fifth of the world’s seafarers, manning oil tankers, luxury liners, and passenger vessels worldwide, exposing them to piracy attacks.

As a policy, the Philippine government does not negotiate nor pay ransom to kidnappers, but gives ship owners the free hand in negotiating for the release of abducted Filipino sailors.

“As our societies expand and develop in an increasingly interdependent, globalized world, it becomes inevitable that standards developed to regulate human activity and performance should be aligned across national borders and among different regions of the world,” Mitropoulos said.

“We should respond to those expectations and duties comprehensively and satisfactorily and, in doing so, assume our duty to seafarers by providing them with training standards of a quality commensurate with their role as both a professional and high-value asset,” he added.

Among those proposed amendments to the STCW include improving measures to prevent fraudulent practices associated with certificates of competency; strengthening the evaluation process and standards relating to medical fitness standards for seafarers; marine environment awareness training; and new requirements for security training, as well as provisions to ensure that seafarers are properly trained to cope if their ship comes under attack by pirates.  –Michaela P. del Callar, Daily Tribune