RECALLING Article 15(j) of the Convention on the
International Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the
Assembly in relation to regulations and guidelines concerning maritime
safety,
RECALLING FURTHER that, by resolutions A.713(17)
and A.797(19), it adopted measures
to improve the safety of ships carrying solid bulk cargoes,
RECALLING ALSO that, in adopting resolution A.797(19), it requested the Maritime Safety
Committee to carry out, with high priority, its work on the safety
of ships carrying solid bulk cargoes and to develop, as soon as possible,
requirements and recommendations covering survivability standards,
design and construction standards, management and training, operational
standards, survey requirements and ship/shore interface aspects,
NOTING that, by resolution MSC.47(66), the Maritime
Safety Committee, at its sixty-sixth session, adopted amendments to
the 1974 SOLAS Convention to include a revised regulation 7 of chapter VI dealing with
loading and unloading of bulk cargo,
NOTING FURTHER the approval by the Maritime Safety Committee,
at its sixty-sixth session, of MSC/Circ.743 on
Communications between maritime administrations and port authorities,
whereby Governments, in whose territories solid bulk cargo loading
and unloading terminals are situated, were invited to introduce port
by-laws complying with operative paragraph 5 of that circular,
BEING CONCERNED at the continued loss of ships carrying
solid bulk cargoes, sometimes without a trace, and the heavy loss
of life incurred,
BEARING IN MIND that a number of accidents have occurred
as a result of (inadequate) (improper) loading and unloading of bulk
carriers and that the development of safe loading and unloading practices
can prevent such accidents occurring in the future,
RECOGNIZING the need to improve the safe loading and unloading
of bulk carriers,
RECOGNIZING FURTHER that such improvement could be achieved
by the establishment safety, of a composite code of practice for the
safe loading and unloading of bulk carriers,
BELIEVING that the application of such a code of safe practice
would enhance maritime safety,
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendation made by the Maritime
Safety Committee at its sixty-sixth and sixty-eighth sessions,
1. ADOPTS the Code of Practice for the Safe Loading
and Unloading of Bulk Carriers set out in the Annex to the present
resolution;
2. URGES Governments to implement this Code at
the earliest possible opportunity and to report to IMO on any non-compliance;
3. FURTHER URGES Governments, in whose territories
solid bulk cargo loading and unloading terminals are situated, to
introduce port by-laws to the effect that:
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.1 terminal operators are required to comply with
the relevant IMO codes and recommendations on ship/port co-operation;
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.2 terminal operators are required to appoint
a "terminal representative" as stipulated in section 1.6 of the Annex to resolution A.797(19);
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.3 the master is responsible at all times for
the safe loading and unloading of the ship, the details of which should
be confirmed with the terminal operator in the form of an agreed loading
or unloading plan;
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.4 in case of non-compliance with the agreed loading
or unloading plans or any other situation which endangers the safety
of the ship, the master has the right to stop the loading or unloading;
and
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.5 port authorities have the right to stop the
loading or unloading of solid bulk cargoes when the safety of the
ship carrying such cargoes is endangered.
4. REQUESTS the Maritime Safety Committee to keep
this Code under review and to amend it, as necessary;
5. REVOKES MSC/Circ.690 and DSC/Circ.3.