The International Maritime Organization

Judged against any criteria, the International Maritime Organization must be regarded as one of the most efficient, dedicated and productive of the specialised Agencies of the United Nations Organisation. It's work programme up to the year 2000, which was adopted by the Assembly at its eighteenth session in October/November, 1993 sets ambitious and closely inter-related objectives for each of the committees and may be compared with the earlier work programme for the 1980s for a view of its forward-looking perspectives. The Organisation, after its difficult and tendentious early years, is truly global and no longer, as was so often said at the outset, 'a rich men's club'.

At the beginning of 1994 it had 147 Member Governments and two Associate Members. It has concluded formal arrangements for co-operation and/or consultative status with a large number of international organisations and non-governmental organisations. Since 1958 it has adopted more than 40 Conventions, Protocols and other instruments dealing with maritime safety, the protection of the marine environment from pollution and other marine issues. The Organisation is seeking an increasingly integrated approach to standard-setting and the resolution of implementation problems. It is actively promoting a greater participation in decision making amongst its Members Governments. The International Maritime organisation must now, in co-operation with other international organisations which have major ocean responsibilities, address a wider range of rights and duties relating to ocean environment and development activities.