HELCOM RECOMMENDATION 10/11

Adopted 15 February 1989, having regard to Article 17 of the Helsinki Convention

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON LIABILITY FOR DAMAGE RESULTING FROM VESSEL-BASED POLLUTION

THE COMMISSION,

RECALLING that under Article 17 the Contracting Parties undertake, as soon as possible, jointly to develop and accept rules concerning responsibility for damage, resulting from acts or omissions in contravention of the present Convention,

NOTING the importance of the achievements made within the International Maritime Organization as regards liability regimes for vessel-based pollution,

NOTING FURTHER the current work within that Organization to develop a liability regime for damage resulting from the maritime carriage of hazardous and noxious substances,

RECOGNIZING that the cooperation between the Baltic Sea States within the International Maritime Organization in matters relating to the protection of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea Area from vessel-based pollution should be further enhanced,

RECOMMENDS the Governments of the Contracting Parties to the Helsinki Convention to:

a)         accede to existing Conventions concluded under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization, such as the system created by the 1969 International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage and the 1971 International Convention on the Establishment of the International Oil Pollution Fund, as well as the 1984 Protocols thereto, and the 1971 Convention relating to Civil Liability in the field of Maritime Carriage of Nuclear Material,

b)         cooperate fully within the International Maritime Organization with a view to elaborating further regimes on liability for pollution damage, such as the current project on a Convention on liability for damage caused by the maritime carriage of hazardous and noxious substances.