Maritime Security

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has as an integral part of its mandate the duty to make travel and transport by sea as safe as possible.

A comprehensive security regime for international shipping entered into force on 1 July 2004. The mandatory security measures, adopted in December 2002, include a number of amendments to the 1974 Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS), the most far-reaching of which enshrines the new International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code), which contains detailed mandatory security-related requirements for Governments, port authorities and shipping companies together with a series of non-mandatory guidelines about how to meet these requirements.