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,
RECALLING ALSO regulations IV/6 and 14 of the 1988 amendments to the International
Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, concerning
radiocommunications for the global maritime distress and safety system
(GMDSS), which require, respectively, that every ship be provided
with radio installations and that all the equipment in these installations
shall conform to appropriate performance standards not inferior to
those adopted by the Organization,
RECOGNIZING the need to take into account the human element
in identifying measures to increase the effectiveness and efficiency
of the human performance by designing equipment that is more suited
to the operators who use it,
RECOGNIZING ALSO that increased effectiveness and efficiency
in the use of GMDSS equipment would be achieved by integrating the
radiocommunication equipment into a shipborne integrated radiocommunication
system, thereby providing simpler procedures for operators,
RECOGNIZING FURTHER the need to prepare performance standards
for such a shipborne integrated radiocommunication system to ensure
that the functional requirements of SOLAS Regulation
IV/4 are met,
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendation made by the Maritime
Safety Committee at its sixty-fifth session,
1. ADOPTS the Recommendation on Performance Standards
for a Shipborne Integrated Radiocommunication System (IRCS) when used
in the GMDSS set out in the annex to the present resolution;
2. RECOMMENDS Governments to ensure that a shipborne
Integrated Radiocommunication System (IRCS) when used in the GMDSS
conforms to performance standards not inferior to those specified
in the annex to this resolution;
3. REQUESTS the Maritime Safety Committee to keep
these Performance Standards under review and to adopt amendments thereto,
as necessary.