Tag: UNODC

During MSC, 95th session, 3-12 June 2015 IMO's Maritime Safety Committee (MSC), which meets at the Organization's London headquarters for its 95th session from 3 to 12 June 2015, is expected to adopt a new mandatory code for gas-fuelled ships.The Committee will also consider cyber security matters and passenger ship safety, as well as a number of items put forward by the sub-committees.IGF Code set for adoptionThe MSC is expected to adopt the draft International Code of Safety for Ships using Gases or other Low-flashpoint Fuels (IGF Code), along with draft amendments to make the Code mandatory under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS).As a fuel with lower emissions than fuel oil and marine diesel oil, the use of gas as fuel, particularly liquefied natural gas (LNG), has increased in recent years. But gas as fuel poses its own set of safety challenges, which need to be properly managed. The IGF Code aims to minimize the risk to the ship, its crew and the environment, having regard to the nature of the fuels involved.The proposed draft amendments to SOLAS chapter II-1 (Construction - Structure, subdivision and stability, machinery and electrical installations), include amendments to Part ...

13th Crime Congress for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

IMO Legal Committee was updated on the current status of the Secretariat's counter-piracy initiatives

The SRSG for Somalia welcomes the release of four remaining crewmen of the FV Prantalay 12 vessel

Address the problem of serious human rights violations affecting migrants Large Scale Rescue(Image CreditTORM A/S)The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has joined with other UN agencies in calling for concerted action from the international community to address the deeply concerning problem of the loss of life, injury, trauma and serious human rights violations affecting migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees traveling by sea. In a joint statement, IMO, along with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that closer cooperation between States of origin, transit and destination, and other relevant actors, was critical to reducing loss of life at sea, addressing the drivers of dangerous sea journeys, as well as ensuring that responses by States upon arrival and disembarkation uphold human rights and dignity, and address specific needs for protection of migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees. Such cooperation is also critical to identifying, prosecuting and punishing the criminal gangs who are responsible for human rights abuses and for arranging sea transportation in breach of all safety regulations, the statement said, noting that while the ...

In the last four years the traffic of heroin destined to Europe and North Africa has shifted dramatically from the northern routes to the southern maritime routes

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is providing financial support to Seychelles, worth around $300 thousand this year that will pay for costs involved in prosecuting suspected Somali pirates being tried in the Indian Ocean island state.

Port facilities need to further strengthen their capacities for surveillance and access control, in order to reduce the incidence of stowaways, participants at a regional seminar on stowaways in West and Central Africa agreed.

Ransoms Total Over US$339 Million, Says new research Image credit: World Bank A new study traces the flow of more than US$400 million in ransom money from the hijacking of ships in the Indian Ocean and calls for coordinated international action to address the isue.A new study, entitled as ''Pirate Trails'' sheds lights to the illicit financial flows from pirate activities off the Horn of Africa and unveils that between US$339 million and US$413 million was taken in ransom from the hijacking of ships off the coast of Somalia and the Horn of Africa the last seven years (2012 -2005). The new report has been recently released by theWorld Bank, theUNODC, andINTERPOL and hasused data and evidence from interviews with former pirates, government officials, bankers and others involved in countering piracy - investigates the flow of ransom money paid out to Somali pirates operating in the Indian Ocean.The study examines the reach of the pirates into the stimulant "khat" trade, human trafficking and other illegal activities that hinder development. Tracing a pattern that it calls "the pirate money model," the study analyzes the investments made by a sample of 59 pirate "financiers" to reveal the range of sectors - including ...

Over US$339 million Taken in Pirates Ransom