RECALLING article 28(b) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization
concerning the function of the Committee,
RECOGNIZING the need to provide a mandatory framework for ships operating in polar
waters due to the additional demands on ships, their systems and operation, which go
beyond the existing requirements of the International Convention for the Safety of
Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, as amended ("the Convention"), and other relevant binding
IMO instruments,
NOTING resolution MSC.386(94), by which it adopted, inter alia, the new chapter XIV
of the Convention,
NOTING ALSO that the Marine Environment Protection Committee, at its sixty-seventh
session, approved with a view to adoption, at its sixty-eighth session, the
Introduction, as it relates to environmental protection, and parts II-A and II-B of
the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code), and also
considered for adoption relevant amendments to the International Convention for the
Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the 1978 Protocol,
HAVING CONSIDERED, at its ninety-fourth session, the draft International Code for
Ships Operating in Polar Waters,
1 ADOPTS the safety-related provisions of the
Introduction, and the whole of parts I-A and I-B of the Polar Code, the text of
which is set out in the annex to the present resolution;
2 AGREES that amendments to the Introduction of the
Polar Code that address both safety and environmental protection shall be adopted in
consultation with the Marine Environment Protection Committee;
3 INVITES Contracting Governments to the Convention to
note that the Polar Code will take effect on 1 January 2017 upon entry into force of
the new chapter XIV of the Convention;
4 INVITES ALSO Contracting Governments to consider the
voluntary application of the Polar Code, as far as practicable, also to ships not
covered by the Polar Code and operating in polar waters.
5 REQUESTS the Secretary-General of the Organization,
for the purposes of article VIII(b)(v) of the Convention, to transmit certified
copies of the present resolution and the text of the Polar Code, contained in the
annex, to all Contracting Governments to the Convention;
6 REQUESTS ALSO the Secretary-General of the
Organization to transmit copies of the present resolution and the text of the Code
contained in the annex to all Members of the Organization which are not Contracting
Governments to the SOLAS Convention;
7 REQUESTS FURTHER the Secretary-General to prepare a
consolidated text of the Polar Code upon adoption of the environmental protection
related provisions by the Marine Environment Protection Committee.