Japan is the 40th ILO Member State to have its ratification registered
The Government of Japan registered its ratification of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006) with the International Labour Office on 5 August.
With the ratification by Japan, ILO Member States representing 70.7 per cent of the world’s global shipping tonnage and more than 50 percent of the world’s estimated 1.2 million seafarers have now committed themselves to the decent work standards of the Convention, which comes into force on 20 August.
Japan is the 40th ILO Member State to have its ratification registered and the 10th from the Asia-Pacific region – after Singapore, Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Philippines, Tuvalu and Viet Nam – to have ratified the international agreement.
The new Convention will be the “fourth pillar” of the international legal regime complementing key Conventions of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), setting international standards for training and certification of seafarers, ship safety and security, and the prevention of ship source pollution. When the MLC, 2006 enters into force on August 20, 2013, ensuring decent working and living conditions for seafarers will become a key indicator of a quality ship owner.
Japan played a key leadership role in the nearly six years of intensive tripartite meetings leading to the adoption of the MLC, 2006 in February 2006. Japan is the world’s second largest ship-owning country and among the top-ten flags of registration based on registered tonnage.
Japan is also an important country for port State control inspection of conditions on foreign flag ships and hosts the Secretariat of the Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control which is one of the most active regional port State control organizations bringing together 18 maritime authorities of the Asia-Pacific region.
The MLC, 2006 will enter into force on 20 August 2013, one year after the ILO received its 30th ratification, one of two thresholds required for its coming into force (the other requirement, that ratifying countries represent 33 percent of the world’s gross shipping tonnage, was achieved in 2009). For countries that registered their ratification after 20 August 2012, the Convention will enter into force 12 months after ratification. For more information, please visit the dedicated MLC webpage atwww.ilo.org/mlc |
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MLC – Frequently Asked Questions
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