THE ASSEMBLY,
RECALLING Articles 1 and 15(j) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization concerning the purposes of the Organization and the functions of the Assembly in relation to regulations and guidelines concerning maritime safety; and also the general purpose of the Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic, 1965,
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT United Nations General Assembly resolution 56/1 and Security Council resolution 1368, both adopted on 12 September 2001, condemning the terrorist attacks on the United States of America on 11 September 2001, and also Security Council resolution 1373, calling on the international community to redouble its efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist acts, including full implementation of anti-terrorist conventions,
EXPRESSING great concern for the security of passengers and crews on board ships including small craft both at anchor and underway in the context of incidents involving terrorism and other unlawful acts against ships, and the associated risks to people on shore or populations in port areas as well as to ports, offshore terminals and the marine environment,
RECALLING resolution A.584(14) on Measures to prevent unlawful acts which threaten the safety of ships and the security of their passengers and crews,
RECALLING ALSO MSC/Circ.443 on Measures to prevent unlawful acts against passengers and crews on board ships, approved by the Maritime Safety Committee at its fifty-third session, in pursuance of the requests of the Assembly as contained in the aforementioned resolution A.584(14),
RECALLING FURTHER MSC/Circ.754 on Passenger Ferry Security, approved by the Maritime Safety Committee at its sixty-sixth session,
FURTHER RECALLING the provisions of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (Rome 1988) and its Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Fixed Platforms located on the Continental Shelf,
FINALLY RECALLING United Nations General Assembly resolution 55/7 urging States to become party to the 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation and its Protocol, and to ensure their effective implementation,
RECOGNIZING the need for the Organization to review, with the intent to revise, existing international legal and technical measures, and to consider appropriate new measures, to prevent and suppress terrorism against ships and to improve security aboard and ashore, in order to reduce the risk to passengers, crews and port personnel on board ships and in port areas and to the vessels and their cargoes,
1. REQUESTS the Maritime Safety Committee, the Legal Committee and the Facilitation Committee, under the direction of the Council, to undertake, on a high priority basis, a review to ascertain whether there is a need to update the instruments referred to in the preambular paragraphs and any other relevant IMO instrument under their scope and/or to adopt other security measures and, in the light of such a review, to take prompt action as appropriate;
2. REQUESTS ALSO the Committees referred to above, when taking action as requested in operative paragraph 1, to take account of the work of other international organizations competent in the development of standards for transport-related safety and security by land, air and sea, as well as industry organizations;
3. CALLS on Governments which have not accepted the 1988 Rome Convention and Protocol to consider doing so at the earliest opportunity;
4. ENCOURAGES Governments, pending the outcome of work tasked to the Committees referred to in paragraph 1 above, to put in place and vigorously implement appropriate security measures around and in port areas and terminals, including offshore terminals;
5. REQUESTS the Secretary-General to take appropriate measures within the Integrated Technical Co-operation Programme to assist Governments to assess, put in place or enhance, as the case may be, appropriate infrastructure and measures to strengthen port safety and security so as to prevent and suppress terrorist acts directed against ports and port personnel as well as ships in port areas, passengers and crews;
6. REQUESTS FURTHER the Secretary-General to submit a report to the twenty-third session of the Assembly on progress made in the interim.