RECALLING Article 15(j) of the Convention on the International
Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the Assembly in
relation to regulations and guidelines concerning maritime safety
and the prevention and control of marine pollution from ships,
RECALLING ALSO that, by circular MSC/Circ.1056-MEPC/Circ.399, the Maritime Safety Committee and the Marine
Environment Protection Committee, recognizing the need for recommendatory
provisions applicable to ships operating in Arctic ice-covered waters,
additional to the mandatory and recommendatory provisions contained
in existing IMO instruments, approved Guidelines for ships operating
in Arctic ice-covered waters (hereinafter referred to as “the
Guidelines”),
NOTING that the Maritime Safety Committee, at its seventy-ninth
session, considered a request by the XXVIIth Antarctic Treaty Consultative
Meeting (ATCM) to amend the Guidelines to render them applicable to
ships operating in ice-covered waters in the Antarctic Treaty Area
as well,
ACKNOWLEDGING that the polar environment imposes additional
demands on ship systems beyond the existing requirements of the International
Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS),
1974 and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution
from Ships, 1973, as modified by the 1978 Protocol relating thereto
(MARPOL 73/78), as amended,
RECOGNIZING the need to ensure that all such systems are
capable of functioning effectively under anticipated operating conditions
and provide an adequate level of maritime safety and pollution prevention,
taking into account the challenges of polar operations,
NOTING ALSO the need for a general update of the Guidelines
to take account of technical, technological and regulatory developments
since their approval in 2002,
CONSCIOUS OF the necessity to also give special consideration
to all ships that only visit polar waters at certain times of the
year,
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendations made by the Maritime
Safety Committee at its eighty-sixth session and the Marine Environment
Protection Committee at its fifty-ninth session,
1. ADOPTS the Guidelines for ships operating in
polar waters, set out in the annex to the present resolution;
2. INVITES all Governments concerned to take appropriate
steps to give effect to the annexed Guidelines for ships constructed
on or after 1 January 2011;
3. ENCOURAGES all Governments concerned to take
appropriate steps to give effect to the annexed Guidelines for ships
constructed before 1 January 2011 as far as is reasonable and practicable;
4. RECOMMENDS Governments to bring the annexed
Guidelines to the attention of shipowners, ship operators, ship designers,
shipbuilders, ship repairers, equipment manufacturers and installers
and all other parties concerned with the operation of ships in polar
waters;
5. AUTHORIZES the Maritime Safety Committee and
the Marine Environment Protection Committee to keep the annexed Guidelines
under review and update them as necessary in light of experience gained
in their application.