Current Legal Developments International Maritime Organization

摘要

When they reach the end of their working life, many ships wind up being dismantled for scrap. This can be a notoriously dangerous and polluting process. The International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (the Convention) was developed in order to address the variety of environmental and occupational health and safety risks that arise from ship dismantling. The Convention was adopted on 15 May 2009 by a diplomatic conference convened by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in Hong Kong. Its conclusion marked the culmination of a number of years of work on the part of the IMO, in close co-operation with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes (Basel COP). This note aims to set out the drafting history of the Convention, to describe its main features, and to identify what still needs to be done in order to successfully implement it.