Tag: ILO

​The increased number of reported cases of abandonment of seafarers is being highlighted at the 105th session of IMO's Legal Committee, currently underway, from 23 to 25 April. A joint ILO/IMO database recorded 55 such cases during 2017, against an average 19 annually during the preceding three years.

The International Chamber of Shipping and the Comité Maritime International have released an updated brochure about the importance of governments ratifying international maritime conventions, especially those adopted by the UN IMO. 

  The NGO Shipbreaking Platform welcomed IndustriALL’s “Campaign to clean up Shipbreaking – the world’s most dangerous job”. IndustriALL, which represents 50 million workers in 140 countries, calls upon governments to finally make the shipbreaking industry safer for workers. The trade unions stress the precarious working conditions for shipbreaking workers in South Asia, usually migrant workers hired by sub-contractors, as well as the exposure to various health threats including toxic substances and industrial accidents. The global union launched a dedicated website featuring campaign materials, related documents and videos, as well as a model letter to governments. In November 2014, the IndustriALL Global Union World Conference on Shipbuilding-Shipbreaking, which Platform founder and policy advisor Ingvild Jenssen attended in Nagasaki, Japan, unanimously approved a resolution demanding that shipbuilding, shipbreaking and shipping states expedite ratification of the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. Moreover, the resolution calls onto countries to apply the EU Ship Recycling Regulation as well as requirements under the Basel Convention and the ILO Guidelines to make the industry safer for workers. “A strong and international trade union movement is absolutely necessary for the shipbreaking industry,” says Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the Platform. ...

  During the 29th World Ports Conference in Hamburg in early Juine 2015, IAPH adopted resolution on urging the ratification of the Hong Kong Convention as follows: Being aware that ship recycling isan essential process for maritimeindustry from the perspective of enhancing safety and efficiency which significance is even higher through the acceleration of fleet renewals which is taking place at the moment, Being further aware that the scrapping of the majority of ships is taking place in only a few states under dangerous and unhealthy working conditions and with affecting serious impact on maritime environment, Recognizing that in close cooperation with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Parties to the Basel Convention, the States in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted the Hong Kong Convention on May 15, 2009, intending to materialize safe and healthy working conditions for recycling workers with eliminating environmental impact from ship recycling, Recognizing further that the Hong Kong Convention imposes strict legislative requirements both to ship owners and recycling yards, Acknowledging that the Hong Kong Convention is left ineffective with getting only few ratifications, as many other states have concernsabout future capacities of ship recycling yards which are able to comply with the requirements ...

  In New York (7 April), the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) represented global shipowners at an important United Nations meeting, having been invited to speak as a panellist as part of the UN Inter Consultative Process on the Law of Sea. The opportunity was taken by ICS to highlight the extent to which shipping is very effectively regulated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) in order to deliver the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. With respect to environmental sustainability, ICS explained how shipping is the only industrial sector already to have a mandatory global regime in place, adopted by IMO, to regulate and reduce its CO2 emissions. A recent IMO study determined that total CO2 emissions from international shipping reduced by over 10% between 2007 and 2012. ICS also gave an overview of the global regulations adopted at IMO to reduce sulphur emissions from shipping and to limit the movement of invasive species in ships’ ballast water, and how the shipping industry was investing hundreds of billions of dollars to order to ensure compliance. With respect to social sustainability, ICS explained that shipping is also unique in having the comprehensive framework of global ...