The IMO’s Assembly has adopted key resolutions and amendments relating to the organisation’s mandatory audit scheme, paving the way for the scheme to come into effect by 2016 once amendments to mandatory instruments have entered into force.
The mandatory audit scheme is seen as a key tool for assessing member states’ performance in meeting their obligations and responsibilities as flag, port and coastal states.
The Assembly also adopted amendments to:
- the International Convention on Load Lines, 1966;
- the International Convention on Tonnage Measurement of Ships, 1969; and
- the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972.
During 2014, IMO is expected, to adopt similar draft amendments (which have already been approved by the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) and the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC)) to:
- the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea;
- the Protocol of 1988 relating to the International Convention on Load Lines;
- the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers; and
- Annexes I to VI to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships.
The adoption of the various amendments and their entry into force will form the basis for an institutionalised audit scheme.
