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International Maritime
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The International Maritime Organization (IMO,

French: Organisation maritime internationale)[1] is a
specialised agency of the United Nations responsible
for regulating shipping.[2] The IMO was established
following agreement at a UN conference held in
Geneva in 1948[3] and the IMO came into existence ten
years later, meeting for the first time in 1959.[4]
Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, IMO
currently has 175 Member States and three Associate
Members.[5]

International Maritime Organization

Abbreviation IMO, OMI

Formation 17 March 1948; 74 years

ago

Type United Nations specialised

agency

Legal status Active

Headquarters London, United Kingdom

Head Secretary-General
Kitack Lim

Parent organization United Nations Economic

and Social Council

Website www.imo.org

 Politics portal

The IMO's primary purpose is to develop and maintain

a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping
and its remit today includes maritime safety,
environmental concerns, legal matters, technical co-
operation, maritime security and the efficiency of
shipping. IMO is governed by an assembly of members
which meets every two years.[2] Its finance and
organization is administered by a council of 40
members elected from the assembly.[2] The work of
IMO is conducted through five committees and these
are supported by technical subcommittees.[2] Other
UN organisations may observe the proceedings of the
IMO. Observer status is granted to qualified non-
governmental organisations.[2]

IMO is supported by a permanent secretariat of

employees who are representative of the
organisation's members. The secretariat is composed
of a Secretary-General who is periodically elected by
the assembly, and various divisions such as those for
marine safety, environmental protection and a
conference section.[2]

History …

The headquarters of the IMO are

located on Albert Embankment,
Lambeth, London.

IMO was established in 1948 following a UN

conference in Geneva to bring the regulation of the
safety of shipping into an international framework.[2]
Hitherto such international conventions had been
initiated piecemeal, notably the Safety of Life at Sea
Convention (SOLAS), first adopted in 1914 following
the Titanic disaster.[1] Under the name of the Inter-
Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization
(IMCO), IMO's first task was to update the SOLAS
convention; the resulting 1960 convention was
subsequently recast and updated in 1974 and it is that
convention that has been subsequently modified and
updated to adapt to changes in safety requirements
and technology.

When IMCO began its operations in 1959 certain other

pre-existing conventions were brought under its aegis,
most notable the International Convention for the
Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil (OILPOL)
1954. In January 1959, IMO began to maintain and
promote the 1954 OILPOL Convention. Under the
guidance of IMO, the convention was amended in
1962, 1969, and 1971. The first meetings of the newly
formed IMCO were held in London in 1959.[6]

As oil trade and industry developed, many people in

the industry began to recognise a need for further
improvements in regards to oil pollution prevention at
sea. This became increasingly apparent in 1967, when
the tanker Torrey Canyon spilled 120,000 tons of crude
oil when it ran aground entering the English Channel[7]
The Torrey Canyon grounding was the largest oil
pollution incident recorded up to that time. This
incident prompted a series of new conventions.[7]

Current Secretary-General Kitack

Lim (left), with predecessor
Secretaries-General O'Neill,
Mitropoulos and Sekimizu

IMO held an emergency session of its Council to deal

with the need to readdress regulations pertaining to
maritime pollution. In 1969, the IMO Assembly decided
to host an international gathering in 1973 dedicated to
this issue.[7] The goal at hand was to develop an
international agreement for controlling general
environmental contamination by ships when out at sea.
During the next few years IMO brought to the forefront
a series of measures designed to prevent large ship
accidents and to minimise their effects. It also detailed
how to deal with the environmental threat caused by
routine ship duties such as the cleaning of oil cargo
tanks or the disposal of engine room wastes. By
tonnage, the aforementioned was a bigger problem
than accidental pollution.[7] The most significant
development to come out of this conference was the
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution
from Ships, 1973. It covers not only accidental and
operational oil pollution but also different types of
pollution by chemicals, goods in packaged form,
sewage, garbage and air pollution.[4] The original
MARPOL was signed on 17 February 1973, but did not
come into force due to lack of ratifications. The current
convention is a combination of 1973 Convention and
the 1978 Protocol. It entered into force on 2 October
1983. As of May 2013, 152 states, representing 99.2
per cent of the world's shipping tonnage, are
signatories to the MARPOL convention.[4][needs update]

As well as updates to MARPOL and SOLAS, the IMO

facilitated several updated international maritime
conventions in the mid to late 20th century, including
the International Convention on Load Lines in 1966
(replacing an earlier 1930 Convention), the
International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at
Sea in 1972 (also replacing an earlier set of rules) and
the STCW Convention in 1978.[2] In 1975, the assembly
of the IMO decided that future conventions of the
International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
(SOLAS) and other IMO instruments should use SI
units only.[8] As such, sea transportation is one of few
industrial areas that still commonly uses non-metric
units such as the nautical mile (nmi) for distance and
knots (kn) for speed or velocity.[9]

In 1982, IMCO was renamed as the International

Maritime Organization (IMO). Throughout its existence,
the IMO has continued to produce new and updated
conventions across a wide range of maritime issues
covering not only safety of life and marine pollution but
also encompassing safe navigation, search and
rescue, wreck removal, tonnage measurement, liability
and compensation, ship recycling, the training and
certification of seafarers, and piracy. More recently
SOLAS has been amended to bring an increased focus
on maritime security through the International Ship
and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code. The IMO has
also increased its focus on smoke emissions from
ships. In 1983, the IMO established the World Maritime
University in Malmö, Sweden and also facilitated the
adoption of the IGC Code.[2] In 1991, the IMO
facilitated the adoption of the International Grain Code.
[2]

In December 2002, new amendments to the 1974

SOLAS Convention were enacted by the IMO. These
amendments gave rise to the International Ship and
Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code, which went into
effect on 1 July 2004. The concept of the code is to
provide layered and redundant defences against
smuggling, terrorism, piracy, stowaways, etc. The ISPS
Code required most ships and port facilities engaged
in international trade to establish and maintain strict
security procedures as specified in ship and port
specific Ship Security Plans and Port Facility Security
Plans.

Headquarters

Structure

Membership …

International Maritime Organization as of 2022:

   member states
   associate members

To become a member of the IMO, a state ratifies a

multilateral treaty known as the Convention on the
International Maritime Organization. As of 2020, there
are 175[18] member states of the IMO, which includes
174 of the UN member states plus the Cook Islands.
The first state to ratify the convention was Canada in
1948. The three most recent members to join were
Armenia and Nauru (which became IMO members in
January and May 2018, respectively) and Botswana
(which joined the IMO in October 2021).[5][19][20]

These are the current members with the year they

joined:

Albania (1993)
Algeria (1963)
Angola (1977)
Antigua and Barbuda (1986)
Argentina (1953)
Armenia (2018)
Australia (1952)
Austria (1975)
Azerbaijan (1995)
Bahamas (1976)
Bahrain (1976)
Bangladesh (1976)
Barbados (1970)
Belarus (2016)
Belgium (1951)
Belize (1990)
Benin (1980)
Bolivia (1987)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (1993)
Botswana (2021)
Brazil (1963)
Brunei Darussalam (1984)
Bulgaria (1960)
Cabo Verde (1976)
Cambodia (1961)
Cameroon (1961)
Canada (1948)
Chile (1972)
China (1973)
Colombia (1974)
Comoros (2001)
Congo (1975)
Cook Islands (2008)
Costa Rica (1981)
Côte d'Ivoire (1960)
Croatia (1992)
Cuba (1966)
Cyprus (1973)
Czechia (1993)
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (1986)
Democratic Republic of the Congo (1973)
Denmark (1959)
Djibouti (1979)
Dominica (1979)
Dominican Republic (1953)
Ecuador (1956)
Egypt (1958)
El Salvador (1981)
Equatorial Guinea (1972)
Eritrea (1993)
Estonia (1992)
Ethiopia (1975)
Fiji (1983)
Finland (1959)
France (1952)
Gabon (1976)
Gambia (1979)
Georgia (1993)
Germany (1959)
Ghana (1959)
Greece (1958)
Grenada (1998)
Guatemala (1983)
Guinea (1975)
Guinea-Bissau (1977)
Guyana (1980)
Haiti (1953)
Honduras (1954)
Hungary (1970)
Iceland (1960)
India (1959)
Indonesia (1961)
Iran (1958)
Iraq (1973)
Ireland (1951)
Israel (1952)
Italy (1957)
Jamaica (1976)
Japan (1958)
Jordan (1973)
Kazakhstan (1994)
Kenya (1973)
Kiribati (2003)
Kuwait (1960)
Latvia (1993)
Lebanon (1966)
Liberia (1959)
Libya (1970)
Lithuania (1995)
Luxembourg (1991)
Madagascar (1961)
Malawi (1989)
Malaysia (1971)
Maldives (1967)
Malta (1966)
Marshall Islands (1998)
Mauritania (1961)
Mauritius (1978)
Mexico (1954)
Monaco (1989)
Mongolia (1996)
Montenegro (2006)
Morocco (1962)
Mozambique (1979)
Myanmar (1951)
Namibia (1994)
Nauru (2018)
Nepal (1979)
Netherlands (1949)
New Zealand (1960)
Nicaragua (1982)
Nigeria (1962)
North Macedonia (1993)
Norway (1958)
Oman (1974)
Pakistan (1958)
Palau (2011)
Panama (1958)
Papua New Guinea (1976)
Paraguay (1993)
Peru (1968)
Philippines (1964)
Poland (1960)
Portugal (1976)
Qatar (1977)
Republic of Korea (1962)
Republic of Moldova (2001)
Romania (1965)
Russian Federation (1958)
Saint Kitts and Nevis (2001)
Saint Lucia (1980)
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1981)
Samoa (1996)
San Marino (2002)
São Tomé and Príncipe (1990)
Saudi Arabia (1969)
Senegal (1960)
Serbia (2000)
Seychelles (1978)
Sierra Leone (1973)
Singapore (1966)
Slovakia (1993)
Slovenia (1993)
Solomon Islands (1988)
Somalia (1978)
South Africa (1995)
Spain (1962)
Sri Lanka (1972)
Sudan (1974)
Suriname (1976)
Sweden (1959)
Switzerland (1955)
Syria (1963)
Tanzania (1974)
Thailand (1973)
Timor-Leste (2005)
Togo (1983)
Tonga (2000)
Trinidad and Tobago (1965)
Tunisia (1963)
Turkey (1958)
Turkmenistan (1993)
Tuvalu (2004)
Uganda (2009)
Ukraine (1994)
United Arab Emirates (1980)
United Kingdom (1949)
United States of America (1950)
Uruguay (1968)
Vanuatu (1986)
Venezuela (1975)
Viet Nam (1984)
Yemen (1979)
Zambia (2014)
Zimbabwe (2005)

The three associate members of the IMO are the Faroe

Islands, Hong Kong and Macao.

In 1961, the territories of Sabah and Sarawak, which

had been included through the participation of United
Kingdom, became joint associate members.[21] In 1963
they became part of Malaysia.[22]

Most UN member states that are not members of IMO

are landlocked countries. These include Afghanistan,
Andorra, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central
African Republic, Chad, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho,
Liechtenstein, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan,
Swaziland, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Federated
States of Micronesia, an island-nation in the Pacific
Ocean, is also a non-member. Taiwan is neither a
member of the IMO nor of the UN, although it has a
major shipping industry.

Legal instruments

Current priorities

See also

Notes and references

Further reading

External links

Last edited 6 days ago by 115.66.202.79

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