NOTING the practice whereby, in order to give full effect
to the provisions of certain instruments developed by the Organization
under specific IMO conventions in the same manner as the regulations
of the conventions themselves, such instruments have been treated
as mandatory and have the same legal status as the parent convention,
in which case appropriate references have been made in the conventions
to this effect,
NOTING ALSO the practice concerning performance standards
and technical specifications developed by the Organization, which
are not regarded as mandatory instruments for treaty purposes but
in respect of which Parties to the conventions concerned are obliged
to establish national standards at least equivalent and, in any case,
not inferior to those developed by the Organization,
NOTING FURTHER that other recommendations and guidelines,
including industry standards, have been developed by the Organization
to assist Administrations in the implementation of the relevant standards
and are treated as recommendations for implementation by Member Governments
with a certain flexibility and at their discretion,
RECOGNIZING the need to ensure that, where reference is
made to IMO and other instruments, a uniform wording is used in order
to indicate clearly the legal status of the instrument concerned and
to set the procedures for amendments thereto as appropriate, after
the IMO body concerned has decided on such a status,
RECALLING that the Maritime Safety Committee and Marine
Environment Protection Committee approved MSC/Circ.930-MEPC/Circ.364
on Guidelines on methods for making reference to IMO and other instruments
in IMO conventions and other mandatory instruments, the usefulness
of which was subsequently endorsed by the Legal Committee and the
Facilitation Committee,
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendations of the Maritime Safety
Committee at its seventy-third session, the Legal Committee at its
eighty-third session, the Marine Environment Protection Committee
at its forty-sixth session and the Facilitation Committee at its twenty-eighth
session,
1 ADOPTS the Guidelines on methods for making
reference to IMO and other instruments in IMO conventions and other
mandatory instruments set out in the Annex to the present resolution;
2 DIRECTS the above Committees to make use of
the aforementioned Guidelines when making reference to IMO and other
instruments in IMO conventions and other mandatory instruments which
are within their area of responsibility;
3 REVOKES circular MSC/Circ.930 – MEPC/Circ.364.