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 ALSO Regulation V/2 of
the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 (SOLAS
1974), which establishes the requirement for promulgating information
on direct dangers to navigation,
NOTING Assembly resolution Resolution
A.700(17), which establishes standards on the promulgation
of maritime safety information using a variety of radio teleprinting
techniques, including high-frequency (HF) narrow-band direct printing
(NBDP),
BEARING IN MIND Regulation IV/7.1.5 of SOLAS 1974, as amended by the 1988 GMDSS Conference, which
states that "ships engaged exclusively on voyages in areas where an
HF direct-printing telegraphy maritime safety information service
is provided and fitted with equipment capable of receiving such service,
may be exempt from this [INMARSAT enhanced group calling] requirement",
NOTING ALSO that the World Administrative Radio Conference
for Mobile Services, 1987, identified channels in the HF band for
the transmission of maritime safety information using NBDP, and resolved
to invite IMO to develop, jointly with other international organizations,
a global co-ordinated plan for the use of these channels (WARC-MOB-87,
Resolution 333),
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendation made by the Maritime
Safety Committee at its fifty-eighth session,
1. ADOPTS the System Performance Standard for
the Promulgation and Co-ordination of Maritime Safety Information
using High-Frequency Narrow-Band Direct Printing, set out in the annex
to the present resolution;
2. DECIDES that broadcasts of maritime safety
information using HF NBDP techniques, intended to meet the requirements
of Regulation IV/7.1.5 of the 1974
SOLAS Convention, as amended in 1988, should be in accordance with
the recommendation set out in the annex to the present resolution;
3. URGES Governments to co-operate by ensuring
that maritime safety information using HF NBDP techniques is provided
in accordance with this system;
4. REQUESTS the Secretary-General to convey this
system performance standard to the executive heads of the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), the World Meteorological Organization
(WMO) and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) inviting
them to participate in this co-ordination effort in accordance with
Resolution 333 of WARC-MOB-87.