- improved awareness and vigilance by crews;
- use of technical equipment on board ships to assist in the detection of pirates and armed robbers;
- encouragement to seafarers to report all incidents of piracy promptly to coastal authorities;
- assistance to coastal States to take effective and timely action;
- assistance to victims of attack, including counselling and compensation in the event of injury, disability or death;
- assistance by flag States to ships which are victims of attacks;
- increased awareness by coastal States of the problem; and
- co-operation between coastal States.
Mr. Steinvorth saw seminars and workshops as a positive way forward towards achieving the above objectives.
Presentation No.6
IMO Guidelines to Administrations on preventing and suppressing piracy and armed robbery against ships
24 Mr. W. Tieman (Netherlands) gave the background to the development of MSC/Circ.622 - Guidelines to Administrations on preventing and suppressing piracy and armed robbery against ships and explained the contents of the circular. He classified types of attack as low-level, medium-level and major hijacking depending on weapons used and the danger the attack posed on the crew. He explained the importance of collecting, collating, assessing and dissemination of accurate information and statistics which include being able to:
- measure the precise levels of such acts and to determine the effectiveness of counter-measures in various areas;
- study the patters and types of such attacks so that security forces can develop effective counter-measures to neutralize them; and
- issue appropriate warnings to ships and owners.
