IMO adopts ship-recycling treaty

IMO adopts ship-recycling treaty    International Maritime Organization said a new convention on ship recycling was adopted last Friday after a five-day conference in Hong Kong, even as it was being denounced by some environmental and worker rights activists.
   IMO said the “Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009,” is aimed at ensuring that ships, when being recycled after reaching the end of their operational lives, do not pose any unnecessary risk to human health and safety or to the environment.
   The conference was attended by representatives from 63 countries.
   Speaking at the close of the conference, IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos said the new convention struck the right balance between the responsibilities and obligations of ship owners, ship recycling facilities, flag and recycling states. He added the convention, as adopted, allows for future improvements and provides “a platform and an avenue for better regulation, in due course, of the activity it addresses.
   “I believe it is a good outcome in the circumstances”, he said, “as it has succeeded in putting in place international rules and standards to regulate, for the first time, a complex and multifaceted issue.”
   But the convention was denounced by environmental and workers rights groups who said it would perpetuate hazardous and polluting shipbreaking.
   'The new convention on ship recycling adopted today won’t stop a single toxic ship from being broken on the beach of a developing country,' said Ingvild Jenssen, director of the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking, a global coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to stop the human rights and environmental abuses of shipbreaking. 'The convention legitimizes the infamous breaking yards of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and actually rewards these exploitive operations while punishing those companies that have invested in safer and cleaner methods.'
   'When the workers and the environment of developing countries desperately needed a life ring, the IMO threw them useless paper,” said Rizwana Hasan, of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association in a final Platform speech before the Conference. 'This issue of shipbreaking should be taken away from the IMO as they have proven they are not competent to handle global waste management nor occupational health and safety issues.'
   The NGO Platform vowed to take the issue next to the doorstep of the European Union, which is due to propose EU legislation on ship recycling later this year.
   They also will forge partnerships with leaders of the recycling and other industries using shipping to promote Green and Safe Ship Recycling and to avoid those using beach breaking operations.
   'The fight for environmental justice in the shipping industry is far from over,' said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, 'When political leadership fails us at the global level, its time to pressure the marketplace by sending customers to the green ship recyclers and to isolate the low-road operators.'
   Mitropoulos urged governments to “ratify the convention at the earliest possible opportunity to expedite its entry into force; secondly, to initiate action to provide technical assistance to requesting countries without awaiting its entry into force; and thirdly, to initiate action, as may be necessary, to ensure the effective implementation and proper enforcement of the convention when it comes into force.”
   Regulations in the new convention cover:
   ' The design, construction, operation and preparation of ships to facilitate safe and environmentally sound recycling.
   ' Operation of ship recycling facilities.
   ' Establishment of an appropriate enforcement mechanism for ship recycling.
   Ships to be sent for recycling must carry an inventory of hazardous materials, and be surveyed during their life and prior to recycling. Breaking yards will be required to provide a plan on how each ship will be recycled, and take measures to ensure that ship recycling facilities under their jurisdiction comply with the convention.
   For additional coverage on shipbreaking, see the April American Shipper, pages 29-32. ' Chris Dupin