4. IMSO’S RESPONSIBILITIES

4.1 As a direct response to these developments, amendments to the IMSO Convention were adopted by the IMSO Assembly in 2006 with the aim of extending the oversight functions of IMSO to all providers in the future. After several years of intensive negotiation within IMSO and IMO, all developments indicate clearly that Governmental interest in oversight of GMDSS has shifted more and more closely from telecom administrations to the maritime administrations. Therefore, IMO has several times debated at meetings of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) the future of the GMDSS and the relationship between the global maritime regulator (IMO) and the oversight organization (IMSO). The decisions of the MSC are clear: robust intergovernmental oversight is necessary and should extend to all existing (Inmarsat Ltd) and new potential providers of GMDSS services in the future, and IMSO should be the oversight body on behalf of the international maritime community. As a result, IMO has formally requested IMSO to extend forthwith its oversight to other satellite operators approved to provide GMDSS services. This is the main purpose of the 2006 amendments to the IMSO Convention, which are applied provisionally from 7 March 2007, as decided by the IMSO Assembly.

4.2 The 2006 amendments to the IMSO Convention also give IMSO the task of overseeing, in addition to GMDSS, long range tracking and identification of ships (LRIT) – a new initiative of IMO which has been developed as part of IMO’s response to improve maritime security, safety and environment protection.

4.3 At its Eighty-Second Session, held at the end of 2006, the Maritime Safety Committee of the IMO (MSC) invited IMSO to undertake the oversight of future satellite providers in the GMDSS forthwith. The MSC also formally appointed IMSO as the LRIT Coordinator and invited IMSO to take action to ensure the timely implementation of the LRIT System.

4.4 In line with developments highlighted above, the Nineteenth (Extraordinary) Session of the IMSO Assembly (5-6 March 2007) decided on provisional application of the 2006 amendments to the IMSO Convention adopted at the Eighteenth Session of the Assembly, pending their formal entry into force, with effect from 7 March 2007, to meet the expectations of IMO in relation to the oversight of GMDSS satellite operators which are or may be approved by IMO in the future, and for IMSO’s appointment as LRIT Coordinator responsible, in particular, for timely implementation of the LRIT System beginning on 1 January 2008.