1.Deprivation of Liberty at Sea
2. POEA Issuances on Yemen Situation
3. Limits of Liability in Hong Kong
4. Rotterdam Court can now Order Ship Arrests Throughout the EU
5. What is Code?
6. People and Places
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1. Deprivation of Liberty at Sea
Human Rights at Sea (HRAS) together with the European
Union’s MARSAFENET (COST Action IS1105) have announced the publishing
of a new international and independent guidance for ‘Deprivation of
Liberty at Sea’, which is available via the HRAS website. This is part
of the HRAS ‘Unlocking the issue’ campaign to raise global awareness
of maritime human rights and constitutes a milestone in MARSAFENET’s
quest to transfer scientific findings into concrete normative and policy
solutions.
This Guidance, published jointly by Human Rights at Sea (HRAS) and
the Network of Experts on the Legal Aspects of Maritime Safety and Security
(MARSAFENET) and financed through the European Union COST Action IS1105,
is the first independently drafted international document covering Deprivation
of Liberty (DoL) by Shipmasters, crew and/or Privately Contracted Armed
Security Personnel (PCASP). It is the result of in-depth research into
the domestic and international legal frameworks governing deprivation
of liberty on board private vessels. The Guidance, which complements
existing guidelines on fair treatment of seafarers in the event of a
maritime accident as adopted by the International Maritime Organization
(IMO), aims to become a leading soft law instrument voluntarily applied
by relevant actors in the shipping, fishing and security industries.
HRAS CEO, David Hammond, said: “This first edition of the Deprivation
of Liberty at Sea Guidance has been the result of six months work involving
significant research and stakeholder input. Working alongside European
colleagues, Human Rights at Sea is proud to be able to deliver a new
and relevant maritime human rights reference document in partnership
with EU MARSAFENET.”
The Guidance outlines a succinct set of principles and detailed guidance
for safeguarding a criminal suspect’s human rights at sea. It additionally
contains checklists for shipowners, Shipmasters, crew, Private Maritime
Security Companies and their personnel in relation to the lawful deprivation
of liberty of suspected criminals at sea, covering pre-transit planning,
the in-transit phase, as well as stages during and after an incident
of deprivation of liberty at sea. This makes it a valuable tool for
actors of the shipping, fishing and security industries responsible
for dealing with instances of deprivation of liberty at sea.
The growing likelihood for shipmasters to deal with criminal offences
committed at sea, notably in immediate proximity to, or on board the
vessel under their command and control with increasingly smaller crews
and against a background of potential legal actions conducted against
seafarers for unlawful deprivation of liberty actions means that the
Guidance at hand provides an immediate reference guide for all interested
parties in support of decisive and lawful decision-making.
The issue of DoL of criminal suspects by Shipmasters, crew and/or PCASP
is highly topical: this is true for piracy prone areas but also for
areas with large migration movements like the Mediterranean and the
Andaman Sea, where chances are that Shipmasters or crew may be confronted
with persons suspected of trafficking in human beings or other criminal
offences.
HRAS and MARSAFENET have determined that this voluntary guidance should
be made freely available for the international public benefit in line
with the charitable focus of HRAS and the open access policy pursued
by MARSAFENET. Any entity using the document in whole, in part or in
concept must fully attribute its use to HRAS and MARSAFENET. HRAS retains
full IP and copyright over the work and the associated ‘HRAS Deprivation
of Liberty at Sea’ concept.
The Deprivation of Liberty report is available to download from the
Human Rights at Sea website under Publications:-
https://www.humanrightsatsea.org/deprivation-of-liberty-at-sea-international-guidance/
2. POEA Issuances on Yemen Situation
Ruben Del Rosario writes from Manila:-
Because of the worsening security situation in Yemen, the Philippines
Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has issued Advisory No. 04
-15 declaring a no crew change and no shore leave policy for all Filipino
seafarers on Yemeni ports.
The POEA likewise issued Governing Board Resolution No. 05-15 on 26
May 2015 which declares Yemen as a war risk trading area and its ports
under warlike operations which will have an effect on premium pay to
Filipino seafarers under the following guidelines:
1. The payment of premium pay shall apply to all seafarers on ships
calling on all ports of Yemen. In the case of ships calling on any of
the ports in Yemen, seafarers shall receive a premium pay equivalent
to 100% of the basic wage from the time the ship is berthed securely
alongside up to the time the vessel departs its berth and the last line
is let go for departure on passage.
2. For ships covered by a collective agreement that provides for premium
pay which is the same as, or higher than, the premium pay for entry
into Yemen mentioned above, no double application of premium pay shall
be allowed; provided however, where a collective agreement provides
a higher premium pay, such higher rate shall apply.
3. Seafarer shall be given the right to accept or decline to join the
vessel if it trades exclusively in Yemen or when the vessel is expected
to call on any Yemeni port.
4. Seafarers opting not to continue his service on board under the conditions
provided in Paragraph 4 above, shall be entitled to free repatriation
to his point of hire, termination pay equivalent to one month basic
wage, earned wages and leave pay.
ruben.delrosario@delrosario-pandiphil.com
3. Limits of Liability in Hong Kong
Harry Hirst of Ince and Co in Hong Kong writes:-
Hong Kong recently implemented the 1996 Protocol with effect from 3
May, 2015, as our recent circular advised; and today, 8 June 2015, is
the day when the limits of liability in the 1996 Protocol are set to
be increased (by 51%).
These increased limits of liability however, are currently the subject
of a Hong Kong Government consultation paper and are not expected to
take effect in Hong Kong for at least another 12 months; that is, until
June 2016. Until then, the current limits of liability prescribed in
the 1996 Protocol will continue to apply in Hong Kong.
It remains to be seen when the increased limits will take effect in
other, State Parties to the 1996 Protocol. Australia, for example, has
already taken steps to ensure the new limits apply there as from today,
8 June, 2015. The UK is expected to take similar steps in the near future,
now that the new government has been formed following the recent election.
Ship owners and their insurers should be aware therefore, that the
increased limits will not automatically apply from today in all countries
which are currently State Parties to the 1996 Protocol.
For more information please refer to our recent guide, ‘Knowing
your limitations’:-
http://tinyurl.com/limitsandhk
4. Rotterdam Court can now Order Ship Arrests Throughout the EU
Rotterdam-based law firm AKD says a recent revision of the Brussels
I Regulation makes it possible to quickly attach assets anywhere in
the EU if parties include in their contracts a choice of forum clause
conferring jurisdiction on the Rotterdam court.
The Brussels 1 Regulation provides uniform rules throughout the EU on
international jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of civil
and commercial judgments. Bart-Jan van het Kaar, a lawyer with AKD,
explains,”The revised Brussels 1 Regulation, which came into effect
on 10 January, 2015, introduces an important change. Under the new regulation,
it is now possible to enforce throughout the EU provisional measures
granted on the basis of a simple application by a party in any individual
member state.”
AKD partner Haco van der Houven van Oordt says, “The revised Brussels
I Regulation includes some drastic changes with important implications
for owners, charterers and others looking to arrest vessels or attach
other assets in EU jurisdictions.
“The Netherlands is already widely recognised as a ship arrest
haven, and its procedural law provides an effective means by which to
obtain security in advance of main proceedings against a debtor. Such
security can be obtained by seizing any asset of the debtor on the basis
of a pre-judgment attachment order. Another option is to levy a third-party
attachment which blocks all payments by the third-party to the debtor.
These pre-judgment attachment orders can be used to obtain security
or to exert pressure on the debtor to make payment and thus avoid starting
main proceedings against the debtor.
“The new Brussels 1 Regulation effectively means that the whole
of the EU is now a potential ship arrest haven for those who initiate
action through the Rotterdam court. The only proviso is that the Rotterdam
court has jurisdiction on the merits of the claim.
“The willingness of the Rotterdam court to allow seizure of the
assets in EU member states other than The Netherlands was underlined
earlier this year when the court granted leave to arrest the pusher-barge
Navin 24 in either Germany or Austria in a dispute involving non-payment
of hire under a time charter. Jurisdiction was based on a choice of
forum clause in the time-charter, which vested jurisdiction to the Rotterdam
court.
“Including a choice of forum clause in contracts which confers
jurisdiction on the Rotterdam court now greatly assists in securing
the enforcement of contractual rights against unwilling debtors. The
Rotterdam court can issue orders for an arrest not only in the Netherlands
but also in other EU member states. The maximum enforcement of rights
is guaranteed, while the maximum amount of pressure is exerted on foreign
debtors.”
5. What Is Code?
Courtesy of the Browser we read this very perceptive and long article
by Paul Ford which appears in Bloomberg Businessweek of| 11th June 2015.
It is at turns interactive, entertaining and informative. It is the
sort of reading which ought to be welcomed by anyone who has lived through
the design and introduction of IT projects:-
“This is a book, really: Computing For Beginners. Not for every
beginner, but for anybody in a management job who cannot write code
and thus is completely at the mercy of developers who can. It explains
why every two years your company is racing to catch up with some new
Internet thing, the work goes twice over budget, and it never actually
gets finished before the next thing comes along.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/
6. People and Places
The Swedish Club has announced the appointment of a new Chief Financial
Officer, Mikael Kromli, who will be based in Gothenburg.
It has also used the occasion of the 2015 Annual General Meeting in
Gothenburg to welcome the election of Mr Lim Sim Keat, Managing Director
of the Dry Transport Logistics Division of the Singapore-based IMC Shipping
Co. Pte, onto the Swedish Club board. IMC Shipping is part of the IMC
Pan Asia Alliance Group – a privately-owned enterprise with a diverse
range of business interests, including shipping, investments, and lifestyle/real
estate.
The winners of the 2015 International Seafarers’ Welfare Awards were
announced on Tuesday 9th June during a ceremony hosted by Secretary
General of the International Maritime Organization, Mr Koji Sekimizu
at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in London.
The winners are:
Judges Special Award : Rev’d Ken Peters, Mission to Seafarers Director
of Justice and Public Affairs
Judges’ Posthumous Award: Mr Paul Karras, founder of Hunterlink Recovery
Services
Shipping Company of the Year: Eidesvik
Port of the Year: Port of Halifax, Canada
Seafarer Centre of the Year: Seafarers’ Centre Bremerhaven
Dr Dierk Lindemann Welfare Personality of the Year Award (organisation):
National Union of Seafarers of India
Dr Dierk Lindemann Welfare Personality of the Year Award (individual):
Chirag Bahri (MPHRP)
The Welfare personality of the Year Award is named after Dr Dierk Lindemann
who sadly passed away on 17 March 2014. Dr Lindemann served as the Shipowner’s
Group spokesperson at the ILO and took a lead role in getting the Maritime
Labour Convention adopted.
DNV GL Group has appointed Tor Svensen as Group Executive Vice President.
Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen will succeed Tor Svensen as Chief Executive
Officer of its Maritime business area. Both will report to the incoming
Group President & CEO Remi Eriksen.
Shipping lawyer Scott Yates of Myton Law has been appointed to the
board of Hull’s Green Port Growth Programme.
Supported by the Government’s Regional Growth Fund, the Green Port
Growth Programme (GPGP) is designed to help businesses in the region
to capitalise on renewable opportunities. The GPGP board consists of
both private and public sector representatives and provides strategic
direction and leadership needed to make decisions about the deployment
of resources across business support, inward investment, site assembly,
employment & skills, research development, innovation and business
grants.
Maritime attorney Conte Cicala has recently joined Clyde & Co’s
maritime group. Conte will be based in the firm’s San Francisco office.
http://www.clydeco.com/people/profile/conte-cicala
Social Notice
The Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers London Branch Barbeque will
take place on 18th June 2015 at The Doggett’s Coat and Badge, 1
Blackfriars Bridge Road. Contact Mike Harrison FICS for further details
at:-
or see the event flyer at-
http://thebalticbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ICS-LB-BARBEQUE-FLYER-2015.pdf:
From the Avo Archive
The website of this newsletter contains all the editorial material
since the inception of the Maritime Advocate as a print based quarterly
in 1997 under the founding aegis of John Guy, Chris Hewer and Manfred
Arnold. Readers can go to the site and search the database on the home
page in its entirety. If you are looking for an old case, an old controversy
or you would just like to see how many times you and your firm have
featured in our annals feel free to access the archive. It is like this
e-zine, free to Readers and we always appreciate the support of advertisers
and sponsors.
Searching for references to Yemen, we pulled up this piece which appears
in the old paper based quarterly issue 27 of July 04,
Headline hostage
James Wilkes, managing director of UK-based maritime investigation
and security consultancy Gray Page Ltd, looks at why, when it comes
to shipping and terrorism, you shouldn’t believe all you read.
MARITIME security, which has been busy clocking up column inches in
the trade press, has finally caught the eye of the wider public media
too. Two articles in a recent edition of a UK broadsheet newspaper made
interesting reading, not because they demonstrated any in-depth understanding
of maritime security issues and the terrorist threat to global shipping,
but because the angle that each article took appeared to have been chosen
more for sensational purposes than any other.
Indeed, a pattern seems to be developing across a wide range of media
commentators towards highlighting the inevitability of terrorist attacks
at sea or by sea, giving rise to the implication that they are somehow
more imminent now than before.
The reality is that the terrorist threat to the maritime domain is
not new and neither is the security risk faced by the industry in other
forms of threat. Terrorists and criminals have been exploiting the vulnerability
inherent in the operational dynamics of the shipping industry for many
years. Piracy has been around for as long as anyone can remember but
rarely gets public media coverage, and it has been almost twenty years
since members of the Palestine Liberation Front hijacked the Italian
cruiseship Achille Lauro. Even in this case, most commentary overlooks
the fact that the vessel was only hijacked when the terrorists were
discovered cleaning their weapons (in preparation for an attack in Ashdod).
Up to that point, their aim was to slip off the ship and into Israel
illicitly.
In more recent times, there have been terrorist attacks on both naval
and commercial vessels. In October 2000, the US warship USS Cole was
severely damaged by a suicide fast-boat attack while on a diplomatic
courtesy stopover in Aden, Yemen. In October 2002, the French-flagged
vlcc Limburg was damaged by another suicide fast-boat attack, again
in waters off the Yemen. Many other planned attacks on maritime targets
have been avoided or disrupted by security services around the world.
The maritime world has lived with security threats, at various levels,
for many years. What is new is that, through the ISPS Code, the shipping
industry is being forced to take proactive steps to actually address
the threats. This is not to say that nothing had been done previously.
Some legislation existed at a national level, such as the UK’s Aviation
and Maritime Security Act (AMSA) 1990. However, most efforts had been
focused on the passenger shipping sector.
Unfortunately, when the ISPS Code was finally introduced, it was met
with inertia from a significant proportion of the industry and, as anyone
involved knows, it has been a slow grind to implement it before the
compliance date of July 1 this year. On reflection, this was no surprise,
even if it was much to the chagrin of the regulators. Those to whom
the ISPS Code applies were simply unconvinced of the need for it, or
the benefits to the industry that might accrue as a result of it.
With media speculation running high on the likelihood and imminence
of a “maritime spectacular”, it is possible to identify why
many in the industry were and still are to be convinced there are issues
to be addressed. Very few commentators understand the realities of the
vulnerability of the maritime domain to security threats. There are
few people with enough credible experience to provide informed comment
and opinion on what is a complex subject. For various reasons, there
were even fewer before the ISPS Code was introduced. As a result, when
the industry sought out experts who were able to help them in meeting
the challenges of introducing an effective, yet cost-efficient security
regime, in the main they found consultants who could only conceptualise
the possibilities of a catastrophic maritime terrorist incident, but
were eager to trade security services on the fear that such an incident
invoked. Little wonder then that many others, taking a more phlegmatic
approach, remained sceptical of the value of enhanced security measures,
particularly when assessing the added organisational and financial burden
it seemed to impose.
The implementation of the ISPS Code and the pressing requirement for
compliance has featured in both trade and public press articles, more
recently on the back of highlighting the maritime security risks at
the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. News stories have been broadcast featuring
the concerns over the links between piracy in South-East Asia and terrorism.
In principle, there is little to lament about the awareness that is
created by such a public discussion of terrorism or criminal activity
in the maritime world. Indeed, a better appreciation of what it actually
takes to carry the bulk of world trade across the oceans, and the risks
faced by the industry in doing so, should be encouraged. However, while
the maritime world works hard to come to terms with its new security
obligations, it should do as much as it can to avoid becoming a hostage
to headlines and sources of superficial information that do more to
scaremonger than they do inform. An appropriate and proportional reaction
is the only means to ensure that the terrorists do not win this part
of the battle.
http://www.avoarchive.com/searchBI.php
Unsatisfied
According to Thomas Cook in the UK, some holidaymakers are just never
satisfied. Here are the top ten most bizarre customer complaints received
by the firm in recent years:
1 On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost
every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food at all.
2 The beach was too sandy.
3 I bought a snorkel and swimming mask for my six-year-old son, but
he was too upset to use them as the fish frightened him.
4 It rained on my birthday.
5 Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was
ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women.
6 I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store
does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts.
7 It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I
often needed to buy things during ‘siesta’ time – this should be banned.
8 We bought ‘Ray-Ban’ sunglasses for five euros (£3.50) from
a street trader, only to find out they were fake.
9 None of the hotel staff was English, and the tea didn’t taste the
same as at home.
10 I would like to complain about the price of alcohol in the resort.
It was too cheap and I woke with a hangover every day.
[Source: Paul Dixon]
Deus ex Machina
A woman was at work when she received a phone call that her daughter
was very sick with a fever. She left her work and stopped by the pharmacy
to get some medication for her daughter. When returning to her car she
found that she had locked her keys in the car.
She was in a hurry to get home to her sick daughter. She didn’t know
what to do, so she called her home and told the baby sitter what had
happened, and that she did not know what to do. The baby sitter told
her that her daughter was getting worse.
She said, “You might find a coat hanger and use that to open the
door.”
The woman looked around and luckily found an old rusty coat hanger
that had been thrown down on the ground, possibly by someone else who
at so me time or other had locked their keys in their car. Then she
looked at the hanger and said, “I don’t know how to use this.”
She bowed her head and asked God to send her some help.
Within five minutes an old rusty car pulled up, with a dirty, greasy,
bearded man who was wearing an old biker skull rag on his head. The
woman thought, “Great, God. This is what you sent to help me?”
But, she was desperate, so she was also very thankful.
The man got out of his car and asked her if he could help. She said,
“Yes, my daughter is very sick. I stopped to get her some medication,
and I locked my keys in my car. I must get home to her. Please, can
you use this hanger to unlock my car?”
He said, “Sure.”
He walked over to the car, and in less than one minute the car was
opened. She hugged the man and through her tears she said, “Thank
You So Much! You are a very nice man.”
The man replied, “Lady, I am not a nice man. I just got out of
prison today. I was in prison for car theft and have only been out for
about an hour.”
The woman hugged the man again, and with sobbing tears cried out loud,
“Oh, Thank You God! You even sent me a Professional!”
[Source: Paul Dixon]
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