SUA-Convention

First things first.

If you find it difficult to understand IMO conventions, nothing is wrong with you.

Conventions are written in the language of international laws which is not the language me and you would normally speak.

It is the language of the maritime lawyers.

And till the time we are not practicing maritime law, we do not need to worry about the language of the conventions.

But seafarers, specially senior officers need to understand the essence of each convention related to the maritime field.

At the least we need to know what each convention aim to achieve.

In my previous articles, I tried to simplify some of the conventions like Hague-Visby rules, CLC conventionFund convention and Salvage convention.

Today I will try to simplify SUA convention which is”Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation”.

Why do we need SUA convention

Have you watched the movie “Captain Philips”?

Even if you have, allow me to give a brief about the story for the benefit of those who haven’t watched the movie.

The story is about the container ship Maersk Alabama which was attacked & boarded by the Somalian pirates.

Captain-phillips

With ship’s staff heroic, the pirates were made to leave the ship but they managed to leave in the lifeboat alongwith the Captain.

The US Navy was involved and the captain was released from the pirate’s captivity.

In this whole battle, 3 out of 4 pirates were killed and one was arrested by the US navy.

Now here is my question.

What could US do with that arrested pirate? Also what allowed the US navy to take action and kill the pirates?

You could easily say that pirates did something wrong and they got paid for their misadventure.

But that is not how the law of the land works.

The courts do not decide the rights and wrongs. The court just observes if the actions of the person is offense as per the written law that they follow.

Court-order

So in the case of Maersk Alabama incident, if there was no written law, the arrested pirate could say something like…

I have no food to eat and I was dying of hunger. boarding a ship forcefully and snatching some money from the ship and ship-owners is my business and my job. I was just doing my job. I haven’t broken any law. 

In fact that is what the arrested pirate did during the hearing in US court.

Somali-pirate-arrested-for-Maersk-Alabama

Believe me, even though we all know it is not right morally, the pirate cannot be sentenced as it is not about what is right or wrong. It is all about if there is any law (International or local) that they broke.

And when the issue is something that affects most part of the world, local laws cannot be effective.

The local laws need to be brought together with an international convention.

For the issues of crimes against ships, SUA convention is the framework that bind the local laws of the countries that has ratified it.

SUA convention is not the law

It is important to mention that SUA convention (like any international convention ) is not the law in itself.

It becomes the law when the country that ratifies the convention includes the provisions of the convention in their local laws of the country.

Main points of SUA convention

SUA convention deals with the criminal issues. And like any criminal law, there are few common points that are addressed.

  • To whom the law applies ?
  • What are the areas of Jurisdiction of the states?
  • What actions are considered to be offenses?
  • What are the punishments for each of the defined offenses?

criminal-law-SUA-convention

The answer to these three questions more or less covers the SUA convention.

Let us discuss each of these provisions.

To whom the SUA convention applies

The convention applies to all the ships navigating in the high seas. Article 2 of the SUA convention defines the applicability of the convention by defining ships for which the convention do not apply.

article-2-SUA-convention

As per Article 2 of the SUA convention,

The convention does not apply to

  • a warship
  • a ship owned or operated by a state when being used by naval auxiliary or for customs or for police purposes
  • a ship which has been withdrawn from navigation or laid up

Jurisdiction of the state as per SUA convention

If Somali pirates boarded a vessel in high seas away from the territorial waters of any state, can any state take action against the pirates when arrested.

Again, “Yes” cannot be the answer.

It need to be a written law. If and which state will have the jurisdiction and when.

Article 6 of the SUA convention deals with the jurisdiction part.

Article 6 of the SUA conventions asks the states to define its jurisdiction. It asks the states to establish its jurisdiction if

  • the offense is committed against or on board a ship flying its flag
  • the offense is committed in the territory (or territorial waters) of the state
  • the offense is committed by national of the state.

Now you know what allowed the USA to arrest and put the arrested pirate from Maersk Alabama under trial in USA.

Because US had their jurisdiction as the offense was committed on board a ship that was registered in USA.

The Offenses as per SUA convention

As I discusses, any convention dealing with the issues relating to the crime need to define the offenses.

Artcle 3 of the SUA convention defines the acts that would be treated as offenses.

In simple words, article 3 of the SUA convention criminalises the following acts by any person

  • Illegaly or forcefully taking control of a ship
  • Violance against a person on ship if it is likely to endanger the safety of the ship
  • Damaging or destroying a ship or its cargo in such a way that endanger the safety of the ship
  • placing or trying to place any device or substance that can destroy or damage the ship or its cargo
  • destroying or damaging a ship’s navigation facilities oe interfering with their operation if it is likely to endanger the safety of the ship.
  • Communicating information which is known to be false, therby endangering the safety of the navigation of the ship.
  • Injuring or killing someone while committing any of the above offenses.
  • Being an accomplice to any of the above offenses.
  • Compelling someone through threats to commit any of the above offenses.

Punishment for the offenses

Another aspect of the criminal law is to define the punishment for each of the criminal offense.

Article 3 of the SUA convention has defined the offenses and the states that ratifies the SUA convention need to include these offenses in the country’s local law.

But what about the punishment for each of the offenses?

SUA convention requires the states to define the punishment.

Rightly so.

The international convention cannot decide the punishment for any offenses. It is the matter for each of the state to decide.

For example, some countries may require the hands of the convicted thieves to be cut as the punishment and other countries may have just few months (or years) of imprisonment as a punishment for the same crime.

It would all depend upon how severe the offense is considered in that country.

But SUA convention do urge the states to take into account the grave nature of the offenses while deciding on the penalities or punishment for the offenses.

However SUA convention do require the states to make the offenses punishable.

This means that if a country is agreeing to ratify the SUA convention, they cannot (in the country’s written law) let the offenders go away without any punishment.

As per article 5 of the SUA convention,

Each State Party shall make the offenses set forth in article 3 punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account the grave nature of those offenses.

SUA Protocol & 2005 SUA Protocol

SUA protocol was introduced at the same time as the SUA convention.

SUA protocol is the supplementary convention to the SUA convention.

The only difference between SUA convention and SUA protocol is that this protocol deals with safety of fixed platforms.

In the year 2005, a second supplementary Protocol to SUA was introduced.

The 2005 Protocol adds provisions which criminalises the use of ships to transfer or discharge biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons.

This means that a ship carrying biological, chemical or nuclear weapons is considered to be an offense.

However, SUA convention allows the carriage of nuclear weapons under the control of  a state that is party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Conclusion

An international convention is brought up to address an issue that not only affects the whole world but also involves the whole world.

In these cases, having scattered local laws of each country can never solve the issue.

An international convention is required that would bind the law of each country.

Or If I can put it this way that an international convention is required to bring uniformity in the law of affected countries.

SUA convention is one such international convention that deals with the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation.

Like any other criminal law, SUA convention defines

  • When the convention is applicable
  • What jurisdiction each state will have
  • What acts are considered to be offenses
  • What will be punishments for each of these offenses

The answer to these questions more or less covers the SUA conventions.

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Capt Rajeev Jassal

About Capt Rajeev Jassal

Capt. Rajeev Jassal has sailed for over 24 years mainly on crude oil, product and chemical tankers. He holds MBA in shipping & Logistics degree from London. He has done extensive research on quantitatively measuring Safety culture onboard and safety climate ashore which he believes is the most important element for safer shipping.

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29 Comments

Ankit Dubey
Ankit Dubey
5 years before

Hello sir it's amazing to to read your blogs i have gained good knowledge just beacause of your blogs. Can you please tell me what is the procedure for switching on echo sounder . And when it is required so switch off echo sounder? Will the transducer get affected if we keep echo sounder switched on while navigating in deep oceans ??

Rajeev Jassal
Rajeev Jassal
5 years before

It will all depend upon the equipment. We need to check the echo sounder manual to see if it says anything about echo sounder to be switched off in higher depths. Apart from that, we need to follow company's navigation manual regarding switching off the echo sounder. Some companies require echo sounder to be switched off in depths greater than 200 meters. Other companies require it to be kept on at all times.

Shahbaaz Ahmad
Shahbaaz Ahmad
5 years before

Hats off to u sir, way u explain things in such a layman terms that even people with zero IQ vil understand, everytime i read ur blogs it makes me a better seafarer, thnx alot sir for ur hardwork & knowledge.

Rajeev Jassal
Rajeev Jassal
5 years before

Glad you found it useful Shahbaaz...

Shahbaaz Ahmad
Shahbaaz Ahmad
5 years before

Sir can u please explain echosounder pythagagoras error formula proof?

Rajeev Jassal
Rajeev Jassal
5 years before

I will explain that in my future blogs on echo sounder...

Suresh kothiyal
Suresh kothiyal
5 years before

Very well explained thank you sir pls keep writing blogs on maritime law, your way of explaining complicated things in simple language is excellent and exceptional. Once again thank you for your kind help

Rajeev Jassal
Rajeev Jassal
5 years before

Thanks for the kind words Suresh...

Capt. Jamal Hassoun
Capt. Jamal Hassoun
5 years before

Thank you very much for the efforts Captain, found it helpful and simple for all.

Rajeev Jassal
Rajeev Jassal
5 years before

Glad you found it helpful Capt Jamal...

Gulbag
Gulbag
5 years before

Sir how can we differentiate between Sua and unclos convention. Just one main difference.

Rajeev Jassal
Rajeev Jassal
5 years before

I think UNCLOS does not deal with the criminality part and does not even talk about the punishments either.

Santosh
Santosh
5 years before

How to convince Psc inspector to downgrade deficiency code 30 to deficiency 17

Rajeev Jassal
Rajeev Jassal
5 years before

I am afraid to say that there is no way other than to request on logical reasoning.

gaurav
gaurav
4 years before

Very informative and easy to understand, thank you. Please add 'boarding provisions' and 'extradition' as per the SUA in the article.

sourabh yadav
sourabh yadav
4 years before

hello sir, very well explained........sir i want to know the legal challenges in the application of SUA.....ps clarify......if feasible example will be a great help

Bablu Mahto
Bablu Mahto
4 years before

Hi Sir, it's also the first choice to look at your blogs for any topic causing concern. Thanks a ton and appreciated your efforts. Can you please the difference between SUA convention and ISPS code.??

Dinesh Dogra
Dinesh Dogra
4 years before

Excellent read, loaded with actionable information. Grateful to your kindness.

Anand Singh
Anand Singh
4 years before

Your blogs provided me sufficient info for my MEO class 1 Exams! Thanks a ton for precise explanation in simple words. Please keep writing and posting.

Karthick
Karthick
4 years before

Hi sir......Just want to thank u for ur effort..... Your notes are in immense helpful to me.....pretty much i studied everything from your page for my exams.....so simple explanation.....hatss offf

Sagar Pawar
Sagar Pawar
4 years before

Superb read. Really appreciate the effort to simplify complexities involved in understanding structure of conventions. Thank you.

Saviour Mung'omba
Saviour Mung'omba
3 years before

Sir. indeed you are gifted with explanatory skills. thanks a lot for making me understand SUA Convention

Amar anand
Amar anand
3 years before

Nice blog sir.....highly appreciated your hard work....keep enlightening us

Ashish
Ashish
3 years before

Thank you soo much sir,your blog is very precise and helpful for purpose of understanding and especially for phase 2 law exams point of view

Robin
Robin
3 years before

Sir can you pls tell me what is the boarding procedure to be followed if a state party desires to board a ship when there are reasons to suspect the ship.

Capt. Chander Vart
Capt. Chander Vart
2 years before

Excellent presentation.

ITEMOBONG
ITEMOBONG
2 years before

Graet Insight sir. Thank you. Please what are the shortfalls of the SUA Convention?

Piet Roosen
Piet Roosen
2 years before

hi

Neo Neo Qeen
Neo Neo Qeen
1 year before

teatime results I think this is a really good article. You make this information interesting and engaging. You give readers a lot to think about and I appreciate that kind of writing.

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