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 FURTHER that the International Convention on Maritime
Search and Rescue, 1979, as amended, establishes a comprehensive system
for the rescue of persons in distress at sea which does not address
the issue of ships in need of assistance,
CONSCIOUS OF THE POSSIBILITY that ships at sea may find
themselves in need of assistance relating to the safety of life and
the protection of the marine environment,
RECOGNIZING the importance of and need for providing guidance
for the masters and/or salvors of ships in need of assistance,
RECOGNIZING ALSO the need to balance both the prerogative
of a ship in need of assistance to seek a place of refuge and the
prerogative of a coastal State to protect its coastline,
RECOGNIZING FURTHER that the provision of a common framework
to assist coastal States to determine places of refuge for ships in
need of assistance and respond effectively to requests for such places
of refuge would materially enhance maritime safety and the protection
of the marine environment,
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendations made by the Maritime
Safety Committee at its seventy-sixth and seventy-seventh sessions,
by the Marine Environment Protection Committee at its forty-eighth
session, by the Legal Committee at its eighty-seventh session and
by the Sub-Committee on Safety of Navigation at its forty-ninth session,
1. ADOPTS the Guidelines on places of refuge for
ships in need of assistance, the text of which is set out in the annex
to the present resolution;
2. INVITES Governments to take these Guidelines
into account when determining and responding to requests for places
of refuge from ships in need of assistance;
3. REQUESTS the Maritime Safety Committee, the
Marine Environment Protection Committee and the Legal Committee to
keep the annexed Guidelines under review and amend them as appropriate;
4. REQUESTS the Legal Committee to consider, as
a matter of priority, the said Guidelines from its own perspective,
including the provision of financial security to cover coastal State
expenses and/or compensation issues, and to take action as it may
deem appropriate.