The Organization consists of an Assembly, a Council and five main Committees: the Maritime Safety Committee; the Marine Environment Protection Committee; the Legal Committee; the Technical Co-operation Committee and the Facilitation Committee and a number of Sub-Committees support the work of the main technical committees.
For summary reports on the work of the Committees and Sub-Committees, please see the Meetings section.
This is the highest Governing Body of the Organization. It consists of all Member States and it meets once every two years in regular sessions, but may also meet in an extraordinary session if necessary. The Assembly is responsible for approving the work programme, voting the budget and determining the financial arrangements of the Organization. The Assembly also elects the Council.
The Council is elected by the Assembly for two-year terms beginning after each regular session of the Assembly.
The Council is the Executive Organ of IMO and is responsible, under the Assembly, for supervising the work of the Organization. Between sessions of the Assembly the Council performs all the functions of the Assembly, except the function of making recommendations to Governments on maritime safety and pollution prevention which is reserved for the Assembly by Article 15(j) of the Convention.
Other functions of the Council are to:
||co-ordinate the activities of the organs of the Organization;|
||consider the draft work programme and budget estimates of the Organization and submit them to the Assembly;|
||receive reports and proposals of the Committees and other organs and submit them to the Assembly and Member States, with comments and recommendations as appropriate;|
||appoint the Secretary-General, subject to the approval of the Assembly;|
||enter into agreements or arrangements concerning the relationship of the Organization with other organizations, subject to approval by the Assembly.|
Council members for the 2012-2013 biennium
Category (a): 10 States with the largest interest in providing international shipping services:
China, Greece, Italy, Japan, Norway, Panama, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, United States.
Category (b): 10 other States with the largest interest in international seaborne trade:
Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden.
Category (c): 20 States not elected under (a) or (b) above which have special interests in maritime transport or navigation, and whose election to the Council will ensure the representation of all major geographic areas of the world:
Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey.
Maritime Safety Committee (MSC)
The MSC is the highest technical body of the Organization. It consists of all Member States. The functions of the Maritime Safety Committee are to “consider any matter within the scope of the Organization concerned with aids to navigation, construction and equipment of vessels, manning from a safety standpoint, rules for the prevention of collisions, handling of dangerous cargoes, maritime safety procedures and requirements, hydrographic information, log-books and navigational records, marine casualty investigations, salvage and rescue and any other matters directly affecting maritime safety”.
The Committee is also required to provide machinery for performing any duties assigned to it by the IMO Convention or any duty within its cope of work which may be assigned to it by or under any international instrument and accepted by the Organization. It also has the responsibility for considering and submitting recommendations and guidelines on safety for possible adoption by the Assembly.
The expanded MSC adopts amendments to conventions such as SOLAS and includes all Member States as well as those countries which are Party to conventions such as SOLAS even if they are not IMO Member States.
The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC)
The MEPC, which consists of all Member States, is empowered to consider any matter within the scope of the Organization concerned with prevention and control of pollution from ships. In particular it is concerned with the adoption and amendment of conventions and other regulations and measures to ensure their enforcement.
The MEPC was first established as a subsidiary body of the Assembly and raised to full constitutional status in 1985.
The MSC and MEPC are assisted in their work by nine sub-committees which are also open to all Member States. They deal with the following subjects:
- Bulk Liquids and Gases (BLG)
- Carriage of Dangerous Goods, Solid Cargoes and Containers(DSC)
- Fire Protection (FP)
- Radio-communications and Search and Rescue (COMSAR)
- Safety of Navigation (NAV)
- Ship Design and Equipment (DE)
- Stability and Load Lines and Fishing Vessels Safety (SLF)
- Standards of Training and Watchkeeping (STW)
- Flag State Implementation (FSI)
The Legal Committee is empowered to deal with any legal matters within the scope of the Organization. The Committee consists of all Member States of IMO. It was established in 1967 as a subsidiary body to deal with legal questions which arose in the aftermath of the Torrey Canyon disaster.
The Legal Committee is also empowered to perform any duties within its scope which may be assigned by or under any other international instrument and accepted by the Organization.
Technical Co-operation Committee
The Technical Co-operation Committee is required to consider any matter within the scope of the Organization concerned with the implementation of technical co-operation projects for which the Organization acts as the executing or co-operating agency and any other matters related to the Organization’s activities in the technical co-operation field.
The Technical Co-operation Committee consists of all Member States of IMO, was established in 1969 as a subsidiary body of the Council, and was institutionalized by means of an amendment to the IMO Convention which entered into force in 1984.
The Facilitation Committee was established as a subsidiary body of the Council in May 1972, and became fully institutionalised in December 2008 as a result of an amendment to the IMO Convention. It consists of all the Member States of the Organization and deals with IMO’s work in eliminating unnecessary formalities and “red tape” in international shipping by implementing all aspects of the Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic 1965 and any matter within the scope of the Organization concerned with the faciliation of international maritime traffic. In particular in recent years the Committee's work, in accordance with the wishes of the Assembly, has been to ensure that the right balance is struck between maritime security and the facilitation of international maritime trade.
The Secretariat of IMO consists of the Secretary-General and some 300 international personnel based at the headquarters of the Organization in London.
The Secretary-General of the Organization is Mr. Koji Sekimizu of Japan who was appointed to the position with effect from 1 January 2012.
The holders of the office have been:
|Ove Nielsen (Denmark)
|William Graham (United Kingdom, Acting)
|Jean Roullier (France)
|Colin Goad (United Kingdom)
|Chandrika Prasad Srivastava (India)
|William A. O’Neil (Canada)
|Efthimios E. Mitropoulos (Greece)
Koji Sekimizu (Japan) 2012-
IMO has now five regional coordinators/advisors for technical co-operation activities, in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Philippines and Trinidad and Tobago.
The IMO Assembly in November 2011 adopted the Organization’s budget for the next biennium, agreeing to a total appropriation of £62,206,200, comprising an appropriation of £30,520,200 for 2012 and an appropriation of £31,686,000 for 2013.
Contributions to the IMO budget are based on a formula which is different from that used in other United Nations agencies: the amount paid by each Member State depends primarily on the tonnage of its merchant fleet.
The top ten contributors for 2012 were assessed as follows (the figures show the amount payable in £s ):
Panama 5.40 million
Liberia 2.94 million
Marshall Islands 1.78 million
United Kingdom 1.36 million
Bahamas 1.32 million
Singapore 1.29 million
Malta 1.09 million
Greece 1.08 million
China 1.04 million
Japan 0.96 million