The General Conference of the International Labour Organization,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of
the International Labour Office, and having met in its Ninety-fourth
Session on 7 February 2006, and
Desiring to create a single, coherent instrument embodying
as far as possible all up-to-date standards of existing international
maritime labour Conventions and Recommendations, as well as the fundamental
principles to be found in other international labour Conventions,
in particular:
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the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No.
29);
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the Freedom of Association and Protection
of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87);
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the Right to Organise and Collective
Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98);
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the Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951
(No. 100);
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the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention,
1957 (No. 105);
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the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation)
Convention, 1958 (No. 111);
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the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No.
138);
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the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention,
1999 (No. 182); and
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Mindful of the core mandate of the Organization, which is
to promote decent conditions of work, and
Recalling the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles
and Rights at Work, 1998, and
Mindful also that seafarers are covered by the provisions
of other ILO instruments and have other rights which are established
as fundamental rights and freedoms applicable to all persons, and
Considering that, given the global nature of the shipping
industry, seafarers need special protection, and
Mindful also of the international standards on ship safety,
human security and quality ship management in the International Convention
for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, as amended, the Convention on
the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972,
as amended, and the seafarer training and competency requirements
in the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification
and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, as amended, and
Recalling that the United Nations Convention on the Law
of the Sea, 1982, sets out a general legal framework within which
all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out and is of
strategic importance as the basis for national, regional and global
action and cooperation in the marine sector, and that its integrity
needs to be maintained, and
Recalling that Article 94 of the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea, 1982, establishes the duties and obligations
of a flag State with regard to, inter alia, labour conditions, crewing
and social matters on ships that fly its flag, and
Recalling paragraph 8 of article 19 of the Constitution
of the International Labour Organisation which provides that in no
case shall the adoption of any Convention or Recommendation by the
Conference or the ratification of any Convention by any Member be
deemed to affect any law, award, custom or agreement which ensures
more favourable conditions to the workers concerned than those provided
for in the Convention or Recommendation, and
Determined that this new instrument should be designed to
secure the widest possible acceptability among governments, shipowners
and seafarers committed to the principles of decent work, that it
should be readily updateable and that it should lend itself to effective
implementation and enforcement, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals for
the realization of such an instrument, which is the only item on the
agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form
of an international Convention;
adopts this twenty-third day of February of the year two
thousand and six the following Convention, which may be cited as the
Maritime Labour Convention, 2006.