Responding to the 13 organisations who jointly presented a 930, 406 signature petition to the International Maritime Organization on 23rd September, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has promised that the UN and its partners will “spare no effort to address the challenges arising from the issue of piracy”.
Representing the coalition of shipping organisations who delivered the petition, Spyros M. Polemis, President of the International Shipping Federation, responded: “We’re grateful to the Secretary General for sharing our concerns and taking them to the Security Council for action. Our determination remains that there is no acceptable level of piracy and that the continued attacks off Somalia require urgent international action.
“Meanwhile piracy also prevails in other areas and we are seriously concerned at the level of violence used against crew members. This is a compelling reason to ensure that piracy is eradicated off Somalia in order to take a stand against the growth of piracy on a global scale.”
David Cockroft, General Secretary, International Transport Workers’ Federation said: “We welcome the Secretary General’s assurance, and hope that what we are being promised here is real action following his report to the UN Security Council this month. Only concrete, determined countermeasures will do any good against what is well on its way to being a global problem.”
The ‘Enough is Enough’ anti-piracy campaign is backed by BIMCO, ICS, IFSMA, IMEC, IPTA, Intercargo, InterManager, International Group of P&I Clubs, INTERTANKO, ISF, ITF, IUMI and SIGTTO, in addition to national ship owners’ associations and trade unions worldwide.
