The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has fixed June 25 for this year’s Day of Seafarers. In an email to announce the date, the IMO wrote that the theme for this year is ‘Seafarers wellbeing’.
Day of the Seafarer is recognized by the United Nations as an observance day.
“This year, once again, 25 June will mark the annual Day of the Seafarer (DotS). DotS was established in a resolution adopted by the 2010 Diplomatic Conference in Manila to adopt the revised STCW Convention. Its stated purpose is to recognize the unique contribution made by seafarers from all over the world to international seaborne trade, the world economy and civil society as a whole”, the IMO statement explained.
According to the IMO, the resolution "encourages Governments, shipping organizations, companies, shipowners and all other parties concerned to duly and appropriately promote the Day of the Seafarer and take action to celebrate it meaningfully".
“2017 and 2018 have seen strong momentum in the industry to address seafarer's wellbeing, particularly their mental health”
To give further exposure to this important issue, our choice for the 2018 Day of the Seafarer theme is "seafarers' wellbeing".
By addressing the issue of seafarers' wellbeing and particularly mental health, this campaign can inform specific strategies to tackle stress and other issues affecting seafarers' mental conditions – and make the tools available more widely known.
The campaign will seek to highlight and showcase best practices and good examples but will also, inevitably, bring out areas of concern and examples of shortcomings.
According to the global body, this year, we will also promote good initiatives and material developed by various maritime stakeholders to advocate for higher standards of welfare as well as highlight what they are doing to improve conditions for seafarers regarding issues related to seafarers' wellbeing, such as: shore leave, abandonment, mental health, wages, no criminalization, repatriation, resources available to positive mental health, and the Maritime Labour Convention.
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