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International Maritime Organization
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International Maritime Organization (IMO) Shipping is perhaps the most international of all the world's great industries and one of the most dangerous. It has always been recognized that the best way of improving safety at sea is by developing international regulations that are followed by all shipping nations and from the mid-19th century onwards a number of such treaties were adopted. Several countries proposed that a permanent international body should be established to promote maritime safety more effectively, but it was not until the establishment of the United Nations itself that these hopes were realized. In 1948 an international conference in Geneva adopted a convention formally establishing IMO (the original name was the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization, or IMCO, but the name was changed in 1982 to IMO). The IMO Convention entered into force in 1958 and the new Organization met for the first time the following year. The Organization is the only United Nations specialized agency to have its headquarters in the United Kingdom. Its governing body is the Assembly, which meets once every two years. It currently consists of 162 members. A Secretary General, with a staff of 300 people, heads the IMO Secretariat. The purposes of the Organization, as summarized by Article 1(a) of the Convention, are "to provide machinery for cooperation among Governments in the field of governmental regulation and practices relating to technical matters of all kinds affecting shipping engaged in international trade; to encourage and facilitate the general adoption of the highest practicable standards in matters concerning maritime safety, efficiency of navigation and prevention and control of marine pollution from ships". IMO is a technical organization and most of its work is carried out in a number of committees and sub-committees. The Maritime Safety Committee is the most senior of these committees. The Marine Environment Protection Committee is responsible for coordinating the Organization's activities in the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from ships. The Legal Committee is responsible for considering any legal matters within the scope of the Organization. The Facilitation Committee is responsible for IMO's activities and functions relating to the facilitation of international maritime traffic. These are aimed at reducing the formalities and simplifying the documentation required of ships when entering or leaving ports or other terminals. All the committees of IMO are open to participation by all Member Governments on an equal basis (IMO Web page).
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