The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), 1978, as amended, sets qualification standards for masters, officers and watch personnel on seagoing merchant ships. STCW was adopted in 1978 by conference at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London, and entered into force in 1984. The Convention was significantly amended in 1995.
The 1978 STCW Convention was the first to establish basic requirements on training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers on an international level. Previously the standards of training, certification and watchkeeping of officers and ratings were established by individual governments, usually without reference to practices in other countries. As a result standards and procedures varied widely, even though shipping is the most international of all industries.
The Convention prescribes minimum standards relating to training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers which countries are obliged to meet or exceed.
The Convention did not deal with manning levels: IMO provisions in this area are covered by regulation 13 of Chapter V of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, whose requirements are backed up by resolution A.890(21) Principles of safe manning, adopted by the IMO Assembly in 1999, which replaced an earlier resolution A.481(XII) adopted in 1981.
One especially important feature of the Convention is that it applies to ships of non-party States when visiting ports of States which are Parties to the Convention. Article X requires Parties to apply the control measures to ships of all flags to the extent necessary to ensure that no more favourable treatment is given to ships entitled to fly the flag of a State which is not a Party than is given to ships entitled to fly the flag of a State that is a Party.
The difficulties which could arise for ships of States which are not Parties to the Convention is one reason why the Convention has received such wide acceptance. By December 2000, the STCW Convention had 135 Parties, representing 97.53 percent of world shipping tonnage.
U.S. Proposal for Revision
In December 1992, as details of the grounding of the M/V Aegean Sea on rocks outside the Spanish port of La Corunna were being reported, the IMO's Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) agreed to a U.S. proposal to conduct a comprehensive review of the 1978 Convention. In making the proposal, the U. S. suggested that the review should specifically consider criteria used for insuring fitness of watchstanders and the role of the human element in maritime casualties. During the ensuing discussions, some delegations expressed agreement that the time had come for the organization to concentrate on areas relating to people, training and operational practices rather than on issues dealing with improving ship construction and equipment standards. Consequently, the MSC directed one of its subordinate committees, the Standards of Training and Watchkeeping (STW) Sub-Committee, to take the human element into account, and further that the Sub-Committee should complete the revision by 1996.
In 1993, the IMO embarked on this comprehensive revision of STCW to establish the highest practicable standards of competence to address the problem of human error as the major cause of maritime casualties. A small number of special consultants developed a document identifying categories of behavioral conditions which, in their view, could be improved to some degree with proper training and enhanced shipboard practices and arrangements. After considering these conditions in terms of the effects of the human element in marine casualties, the consultants prepared a preliminary draft of suggested amendments to the STCW Convention, including a number of proposals directly addressing the human element. They also included a proposal to develop a new STCW Code, which would contain the technical details associated with provisions of the Convention. The amendments were discussed and modified by the STW Subcommittee over the following two years.
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