RECALLING Article 28(b) of the Convention on the International
Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the Committee,
RECALLING ALSO resolution A.212(VII) by which the Assembly,
at its seventh session, adopted the Code for the Construction
and Equipment of Ships Carrying Dangerous Chemicals in Bulk (BCH
Code), which provides safety requirements for chemical tankers supplementary
to the provisions of the International Convention for the Safety of
Life at Sea, 1974, as amended,
RECALLING FURTHER resolution MEPC.20(22) by which the Marine
Environment Protection Committee adopted the BCH Code to make it mandatory
under MARPOL,
NOTING resolution MSC.29(61) by which, at its sixty-first
session, it adopted the revised BCH Code,
NOTING ALSO resolutions MSC.369(93) and MEPC.250(66), respectively, by which it,
and the Marine Environment Protection Committee, adopted corresponding
amendments to the International Code for the Construction and Equipment
of Ships Carrying Dangerous Chemicals in Bulk (IBC
Code),
NOTING FURTHER resolution MEPC.249(66)by which the MEPC, at its sixty-sixth session, adopted amendments
to the BCH Code,
CONSIDERING that it is highly desirable for the provisions
of the BCH Code which are mandatory under MARPOL and
recommendatory from a safety standpoint, to remain identical when
adopted by the Marine Environment Protection Committee and the Maritime
Safety Committee,
HAVING CONSIDERED, at its ninety-third session, amendments
to the BCH Code proposed by the Sub-Committee on Stability and Load
Lines and Fishing Vessels Safety, at its fifty-fifth session, which
were approved by the Committee at its ninety-second session,
RECOGNIZING the need to bring the approved amendments to
the BCH Code into force on the date on which corresponding amendments
to the IBC Code enter into force,
1 ADOPTS amendments to the Code for the Construction
and Equipment of Ships Carrying Dangerous Chemicals in Bulk (BCH Code),
as amended, the text of which is set out in the annex to the present
resolution;
2 DETERMINES that the said amendments shall become
effective on 1 January 2016 upon acceptance and entry into force of
the corresponding amendments to the IBC Code adopted
by resolution MSC.369(93).