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International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea - SOLAS

The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS, International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea) of all international agreements on the safety of merchant ships is the most important working version of the document today is SOLAS-74.

Each vessel subject to this regulatory document, making an international voyage, must comply with its requirements. Otherwise, it may be delayed or not allowed into the port.
The establishment of minimum standards that meet the requirements for safety in the construction, equipment and operation of ships is the main goal of the international convention for the safety of life at sea.

The State whose flag the ship is flying must ensure that ships comply with SOLAS requirements. To prove their fulfillment, the Convention provides for a variety of certificates. Such documents (usually called "conventional") are issued either by the Flag Administration itself, or on its behalf ("by authorization of the Administration") - if there is a corresponding order.

Control conditions also allow governments to inspect ships flying the flags of other states, especially if there are clear grounds for doubting that the ship and/or its equipment is not substantially in compliance with the requirements of the Convention. This procedure is called Port State Control (PSC).
The current text of the SOLAS Convention includes Articles setting out general obligations, amendment procedures, etc., and is accompanied by an Annex divided into 12 Chapters.

History reference

The first version of the document was adopted in 1914, after the sinking of the Titanic, the second in 1929 after the sinking of the Vestris, the third in 1948, after the explosion of the Grancan, and the fourth in 1960.
The Convention as amended in 1960, which was adopted on June 17, 1960 and entered into force on May 26, 1965, proved to be the first significant taskInternational Maritime Organization (IMO)the main purpose of which was the safety of ships and their crews.

This convention covered a wide range of measures designed to improve the conditions for the safety of navigation. It was a significant step forward in modernizing regulations and maintaining the pace of technical development in the shipping industry.

It was necessary to keep the normative document up to date by adopting periodic amendments. But in practice, due to the complex procedure for adopting new changes, the procedure for introducing amendments turned out to be too slow. It soon became clear that the entry into force of the adopted amendments within a reasonable period of time would be impossible to ensure.

For this reason, on November 1, 1974, a new text of the SOLAS Convention was adopted at the International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea. It included not only actual changes agreed to by a specified date, but also a new procedure for accepting default amendments, a procedure designed to ensure that accepted changes can become effective within the shortest possible time. For example, instead of requiring an amendment to enter into force upon acceptance by two-thirds of the signatories to the Convention, the new default acceptance procedure assumes that the change will enter into force after a specified date, unless objections are received by an agreed number before that date. sides.

The current text of the Convention is also known as SOLAS 1974, as amended. The SOLAS-74 convention entered into force on May 25, 1980.

These measures have made it possible in numerous cases to update, refine and amend the 1974 Convention. So, in 1988, a Protocol was adopted to it (November 10, at the International Conference on the Harmonized System of Examination and Registration of Certificates). In 1992, the IMO published the so-called Consolidated Text of the Convention.

Between 9-13 December 2002, the Diplomatic Conference on Maritime Security, held in London, adopted amendments to Chapter XI, which came into force on 1 July 2004.