Suppression of Unlawful Acts (SUA) Convention; 1988

 

CHIEF MATES 
PHASE 2 

SUBJECT : MARINE LAW

TOPIC :Suppression of Unlawful Acts (SUA) Convention; 1988


Background

 

  1. It was the incident of Achille Lauro in 1985 that led to the development of SUA Convention in 1988, which came into force on 1st March 1992;
  2. The Convention is basically a mechanism for cooperation among countries for preventing/handling of terrorist activities involving a ship;
  3. The focus of SUA Convention is on the definition & concept of OFFENCE;
  4. India is a party to the SUA Convention.

 

Definition & Concept of OFFENCE under SUA Convention

 

It’s an offence if the NAVIGATION OF THE VESSEL IS ENDANGERED due to any of the following reasons:

 

               i.         Causing harm/death of a person on-board;

              ii.         Causing damage to ship or cargo;

            iii.         Deliberately causing damage to navigational aids ashore;

            iv.         Communication of false information.

 

The question therefore arises, when is the navigation of a ship endangered?

 

  1. It’s endangered when the Master is under duress;
  2. Under duress means that for reasons due to circumstances, powers of the person in-charge are taken away & thus the person is unable to execute his powers;
  3. Master executes Passage of ship under his command due to powers as a Master;
  4. If therefore, Master is threatened with the life of a crewmember & asked to divert the ship, then Master is no longer able to perform his powers as a Master to execute the Passage & he’s only behaving like a human-being to save life of another human-being; the Master is thus under duress.
  5. Therefore, an AB just physically harming a fellow AB on-board does not put Master under duress;
  6. But if the cook puts a butcher’s knife on OOW’s throat & asks Master to divert the ship, Master is put under duress thereby endangering the navigation of ship & thus SUA Convention becomes applicable.

 

What are the Countries party to SUA Convention Required to do?

 

Countries party to SUA Convention are required to do the following:

 

  1. Amend their national law to make provisions to punish offenders who have committed an “offence” beyond the Territorial Sea of the country;
  2. To use all available means to capture the offenders & conduct an immediate inquiry into the incidence;
  3. If applicable, punish the “offender” as per its amended national law;
  4. If applicable, hand-over the offenders to another country if the offence is directed towards that country; OR the flag State; OR the country of the offenders’ nationality.

 

IMPORTANT – SUA Convention does not require countries to have Extradition Treaty between them for offenders to be handed over.

 

SUA Protocol of 1995

Protocol came into force on 28th July 2010;

 

Protocol EXPANDS definition of “Offence”:

 

  1. It’s an offence if a vessel is involved in illegal carriage of Biological, Chemical, Nuclear material/weapons;
  2. To have on-board persons who have committed an offence in past or are likely to be involved in an offence in future.

   iii.         The Protocol also gives powers to countries to STOP & BOARD a passing ship if they have reasons to believe that the ship has been involved or likely to be involved in committing an offence.

 

VERY IMPORTANT

 

It’s NOT an OFFENCE if a ship is transporting nuclear material from a country that is following the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to another country that is also following the NPT.

 

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

 

     i.        INDIA is NOT a party to NPT & thus does not follow the NPT, therefore India is NOT a PARTY to SUA Protocol of 1995;

     ii.         INDIA is ONLY PARTY to the SUA Convention 1988.

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