The Assembly,
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Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - Resolutions - Assembly - IMO Resolution A.741(18) – International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention - (International Safety Management (ISM) Code) – (Adopted on 4 November 1993) - The Assembly,

The Assembly,

 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 resolution A.680(17), by which it invited Member Governments to encourage those responsible for the management and operation of ships to take appropriate steps to develop, implement and assess safety and pollution-prevention management in accordance with the IMO Guidelines on Management for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention,

 RECALLING ALSO resolution A.596(15), by which it requested the Maritime Safety Committee to develop, as a matter of urgency, guidelines, wherever relevant, concerning shipboard and shore-based management, and its decision to include in the work programme of the Maritime Safety Committee and the Marine Environment Protection Committee an item on shipboard and shore-based management for the safe operation of ships and for the prevention of marine pollution, respectively,

 RECALLING FURTHER resolution A.441(XI), by which it invited every State to take the necessary steps to ensure that the owner of a ship which flies the flag of that State provides such State with the current information necessary to enable it to identify and contact the person contracted or otherwise entrusted by the owner to discharge his responsibilities for that ship in regard to matters relating to maritime safety and the protection of the marine environment,

 RECALLING FURTHER resolution A.443(XI), by which it invited Governments to take the necessary steps to safeguard the shipmaster in the proper discharge of his responsibilities in regard to maritime safety and the protection of the marine environment,

 RECOGNIZING the need for appropriate organization of management to enable it to respond to the need of those on board ships to achieve and maintain high standards of safety and environmental protection,

 RECOGNIZING ALSO that the most important means of preventing maritime casualties and pollution of the sea from ships is to design, construct, equip and maintain ships and to operate them with properly trained crews in compliance with international conventions and standards relating to maritime safety and pollution prevention,

 NOTING that the Maritime Safety Committee is developing requirements for adoption by Contracting Governments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, which will make compliance with the Code referred to in operative paragraph 1 mandatory,

 CONSIDERING that the early implementation of that Code would greatly assist in improving safety at sea and protection of the marine environment,

 NOTING FURTHER that the Maritime Safety Committee and the Marine Environment Protection Committee have reviewed resolution A.680(17) and the Guidelines annexed thereto in developing the Code,

 HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendations made by the Maritime Safety Committee at its sixty-second session and by the Marine Environment Protection Committee at its thirty-fourth session,

  1. ADOPTS the International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention (International Safety Management (ISM) Code), set out in the annex to the present resolution;

  2. STRONGLY URGES Governments to implement the ISM Code on a national basis, giving priority to passenger ships, tankers, gas carriers, bulk carriers and mobile offshore units which are flying their flags, as soon as possible but not later than 1June 1998, pending development of the mandatory application of the Code;

  3. REQUESTS Governments to inform the Maritime Safety Committee and the Marine Environment Protection Committee of the action they have taken in implementing the ISM Code;

  4. REQUESTS the Maritime Safety Committee and the Marine Environment Protection Committee to develop Guidelines for the implementation of the ISM Code;

  5. REQUESTS ALSO the Maritime Safety Committee and the Marine Environment Protection Committee to keep the Code and its associated Guidelines under review and to amend them as necessary;

  6. REVOKES resolution A.680(17).


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