Important events in September/World Maritime Day: Risks and terrorism

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World Maritime Day

Every year, the International Maritime Organization, its 164 Member States and three Associate Members celebrate World Maritime Day on the last Thursday of September. It is an opportunity to inform a wide audience about the Organization’s goals and achievements and to raise awareness of the vital role that the maritime sector plays in the lives of all people.

Spotlight on maritime security

In 2002, IMO adopted a new mission statement, recognizing its changing priorities, from “Safer Shipping and Cleaner Oceans” to “Safe, Secure and Efficient Shipping on Clean Oceans”.

This new formulation was better suited to the broader objectives of the Organization and provided a blueprint for the actions to be undertaken.

By choosing the theme of World Maritime Day, it is to highlight the particular importance that the IMO has recently given to maritime security.

While there is no shortage of natural hazards at sea, everyone knows today that navigation is also exposed to the risk of crime at sea and the scourge of international terrorism. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is nothing new.

Already in the late 1970s, the IMO had to deal with barratry, the illegal seizure of ships and their cargo or other forms of maritime fraud. Since 1982, the IMO has been monitoring the development of piracy and armed robbery against ships in different regions of the world and has taken measures to combat this phenomenon in the most affected areas.

Following the Achille Lauro tragedy in 1985, when terrorists seized an Italian cruise ship and killed a passenger before negotiating their retreat, the IMO began to develop a series of technical provisions to prevent unlawful acts against passengers and crew on board ships, culminating in the adoption in March 1988 of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA Convention) and its protocol on offshore platforms.