Criticism has emerged of the IMO’s approach to armed guards, with the retrospective move towards standards being seen as an attempt to ensure the organisations credibility.
Following the debate the MSC agreed interim guidelines for PMSC’s providing contracted armed security personnel on board ships in the High Risk Area.
Criticism has emerged of the IMO’s approach to armed guards, with the retrospective move towards standards being seen as an attempt to ensure the organisations credibility.
Following the debate the MSC agreed interim guidelines for PMSC’s providing contracted armed security personnel on board ships in the High Risk Area.
The MSC agreed that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) would be best placed to develop international standards based on the guidelines – many agree, but there are real concerns about how long such a process will take. The ISO states it will report back to the IMO by November, that seems an awful long time away.
Developing a uniform code of practice is important, but given that people are dying on both sides of an ongoing conflict, and the multiple nations involved, the huge variation in the size and value of pirate targets and victims and the abundance of national laws and regulations involved “standardisation” has its work cut out.
The other consideration is that any such legislation can probably never become mandatory and therefore will remain voluntary, as with the Best Management Practices which have done so much to aid shipping under threat, yet are still ignored by some vessels travelling in the high risk area.
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