NOTING that, while States may realise certain benefits by becoming party to instruments aiming at promoting maritime safety and the prevention of pollution from ships, these desired benefits can only be fully achieved when all Parties concerned carry out their obligations as required by the conventions,
NOTING FURTHER that the ultimate effectiveness of any instrument depends, inter alia, upon all States:
(a) becoming party to the instruments mentioned above;
(b) implementing them fully and effectively;
(c) enforcing them rigorously; and
(d) reporting to the Organization, as required,
CONSCIOUS of the difficulties a number of Member States may face in giving full and complete effect to all the provisions of the various IMO instruments to which they are party,
RECOGNIZING that any such difficulties need to be minimised and for that reason the Organization has established and maintains an integrated Technical Co-operation Programme,
WELCOMING the decision of the Maritime Safety Committee, at its seventieth session, to draw up clear criteria against which the success of the performance of the flag States might be assessed,
UNDERSTANDING that the development, acceptance and adoption of such internal and external criteria be used for the self-assessment of the ability, capacity and performance of States, to carry out and fulfill the obligations and responsibilities they undertake to perform by becoming Parties to various instruments is still in progress,
BEING DESIROUS to assist further Member States in improving their capabilities and performance as flag States and in giving full and complete effect to the instruments to which they are Party,
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendation made by the Maritime Safety Committee at its seventy-first session and by the Marine Environment Protection Committee at its forty-third session,
1. ADOPTS the Guidance to assist flag States in the self-assessment of their performance, as set out in the Annex to the present resolution;
2. URGES Member Governments, in their efforts to improve safety of life at sea and to protect the marine environment, to carry out, at regular intervals at their discretion, a self-assessment of their capabilities and performance in giving full and complete effect to the various instruments to which they are Party;
3. URGES ALSO Member Governments to use the Guidance, in conjunction with resolution A.847(20), and to bear in mind the relevant provisions of the various IMO instruments to which they are Party, when assessing their performance as a flag State in the context of these instruments;
