Geneva Convention IMO Case Study

The interest of having common international regulation for improving the safety at sea has been desired since the middle of the 19th century. A couple of treaties were adopted between cooperating/trading countries. A proposition of a permanent international organization that would be promoting marine safety was given but nothing happened until the 1948 United Nations Geneva convention [4].

At the Geneva convention IMO was formally established as IMCO (Inter Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization), the name was changed to IMO 1982. 10 years after the establishment of the organization the first IMCO Convention came in to force and the newly formed organization held its first meeting 1958. Article 1(a) is summering the purpose of the

Those were realized by the IMO who formed the International Mobile Satellite Organization IMSO in the beginning of 1970. The newly founded organization oversaw standardization of equipment and worked for improving communication to ships which led to development of the Global maritime distress and safety system, GMDSS which was adopted 1988 and started to be phased in around 1992. The organizations vision that “a ship that is in distress anywhere in the world can be virtually guaranteed assistance” was achieved in February 1999 when the GMDSS system became fully functional [4].

During the 90s IMO focused most on the human element within shipping. The Standards of Training, Watchkeeping for Seafarers STCW convention entered into force 1995. The convention was originally created 1978 and the purpose of it was to improve standards both in training and skills of the seafarers, but significant changes were done 1995. With the convention in force IMO got for the first time the authority and powers to investigate different Governments compliance with the convention. The Manila amendments was the latest revision of the STCW convention and was completed 2010

A convention regulating those problems was accepted by IMO 2009 by the Hong Kong gathering of member states [4].

As the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in New York the 9th of September 2001 a mayor concern emerged that civilian transportation units, in this particular case airplanes could be used as tools to such acts. Even though ships never have been used in such terrorist attacks the IMO member states with United States of America in particular wanted to prevent such future threats. This process led to the International Ship and Port Facility Security, ISPS convention that came in force in July 2004 [4].

The latest achievements of IMO that came in force at the 1st January 2016 was the Member State Audit Scheme. This will be an important tool for the IMO both by being the organ that can perform an audit on a member state to see how effectively the member state applies the mandatory IMO conventions and instrument but also to act in support with objectives how to apply those conventions even more effectively