Counter Piracy Contact Group Minutes

If you click the title of this blog post, you can go to see the full article.  Here are some 'highlights' from the report.

"It is critical that ship owners and operators implement Best Management Practices to discourage attacks and prevent boardings. It is an appropriate step for participating states to consider taking action on the issue of seafarers in captivity."

Counter Piracy Contact Group Confronts Maritime Crime in the Horn of Africa

Fact Sheet

Office of the Spokesman

Washington, DC

March 25, 2011

_______________________________

The United States joined more than 60 nations and international organizations at the United Nations in New York on March 21, 2011, for a meeting of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia.

In a communiqué following the meeting, the Contact Group called for a renewed international commitment to combating piracy, both at sea and on land in Somalia, through robust and integrated military, law enforcement, and development activities. Among their recommendations, the Contact Group called for:

*     Reinforcing international naval patrols in response to more aggressive and widespread pirate activity in the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean and providing sufficient military capability to sustain counter piracy operations.

*     Expanding the capacity of the international community to prosecute suspected pirates captured at sea, as well as their leaders and financiers, through national prosecutions and innovative additional mechanisms, including the development and sharing of information to counter enabling networks providing arms, equipment, and funding to pirate gangs.

*     Intensifying implementation of a full range of industry-developed self-protection measures by ship owners and operators to prevent pirate attacks and safeguard merchant mariners.

*     Strengthening the capacity of Somalia and other countries in the region to combat piracy on their own, in particular through contributions to the UN Trust Fund Supporting Initiatives of States Countering Piracy off the Coast of Somalia.

"On behalf of the United Nations, the Department of Political Affairs addressed the CGPCS plenary and emphasized the importance of fighting piracy simultaneously on three fronts: deterrence; security and the rule of law; and development."

"The CGPCS noted that the lack of sufficient facilities for incarceration of convicted pirates was one of the most acute issues to be addressed in order to ensure an increased number of prosecutions, including in the region."

"Moving forward, an intersessional working group will address further implementation of BMPs by nations with the potential use of the International Ship and Port Facility (ISPS) Code, the International Safety Management (ISM) Code, or other mechanisms. In recognition of further use of armed and unarmed security teams as part vessel defense, a second intersessional group of interested states and NGOs will address the consequences of the use of those teams with a view to examining the feasibility of elaborating guidelines. Conceptual papers will be developed to form the basis of discussion by each of the intersessional groups."