The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a creation of the 1948 Convention on the International Maritime Organization was created to superintend over global shipping. It was started to superintend over maritime shipping from a global perspective (IMO, 2018). IMO is an arm of the United Nations whose members include a majority of the nations in the world with most of the nations who are not members being associates of the organization. A nation needs to be recognized by the UN and then become a signatory of the convention above to become a full member of the IMO. Among the key significance of the IMO is to ensure the continued progress of maritime activity through technological advancement. IMO seeks to ensure the sharing of technology among member states to enable the continued advancement of the maritime industry itself. As technology advances, IMO also seeks to ensure that mundane and obsolete vessels are not abandoned on vast water bodies through instruments such as the Nairobi International Convention of Removal of Wrecks (Whittington, Zhang & Campion, 2017). Secondly, IMO seeks to ensure that maritime activities do not visit inordinate degradation of the environment. This second significance is achieved through instruments such as International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response, and Co-operation (OPRC). The safety of seafarers is also key among the obligations of IMO through the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) (Nikcevic, 2015). One of the areas of greatest achievement for the IMO is the area of safety, both for cargo and seafarers. Sea transport is one of the largest transportation systems in the world, moving vast amounts of cargo across the globe continuously. Much of the cargo transported is also extremely volatile and dangerous. These include natural gas and crude oil. Due to this volatility, a high level of safety has been maintained within this massive industry as compared to the other common modes of transport such as road, air, and rail (Nikcevic, 2015). This safety record is attributable to the IMO since maritime transport is mainly international through vast sea areas that do not fall under any state jurisdiction.
References
International Maritime Organization (2018). Introduction to IMO. Retrieved January 21, 2018, from http://www.imo.org/en/About/Pages/Default.aspx
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Nikcevic, G. J. (2015). Legal regulations in the function of ensuring ship safety. Pomorstvo: Scientific Journal of Maritime Research , 29 (1), 30-39
Whittington, M., Zhang, A., & Campion, D. (2017). To remove or not to remove? Dealing with pollution risks from shipwrecks. In International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings 2017(1). 457-477
