International Maritime Organization

The International Maritime Organization is a United Nations agency specifically tasked with improving maritime safety and preventing pollution from maritime vessels. The International Maritime Organization has a Legal Committee designed to cover liability and compensation issues related to maritime disasters. The Legal Committee meets every April and October and is generally responsible for defining the legal regime related to international maritime organizations, for instance completing compulsory pilot agreements in a strait used for international navigation.  Primarily focused on promoting safety at sea and pollution prevention, the International Maritime Organization has also been responsible for the creation of ship design, construction and operation standards as well rules concerning distress communications at sea.

The International Maritime Organization is a relatively small organization with approximately three hundred international staff. Member states are responsible for enforcing compliance with its conventions and recommendations. However, with broad-based participation from member states and a well-respected decision-making process, the International Maritime Organization has considerable influence in the world of international maritime transport. Today, the International Maritime Organization is focused on implementation as well as technical cooperation, including identifying and providing resources to coastal states that lack expertise, training or funding. As the organization principally responsible not only for the safety of life at sea (SOLAS) convention but for the compensation and liability framework related to pollution and other maritime incidents as well as many ship design standards, the International Maritime Organization’s chief challenge in the Arctic will be to convince Arctic nations to bear the cost of enforcing its conventions and recommendations.