An ISCO team attended the periodic IMO Secretary General briefing for Intergovernmental and Non-Governmental Organizations on Friday 30th May, 2025 at IMO Headquarters, London
ISCO was represented by Rupert Bravery (Chair), Matthew Sommerville and Rob Cox.
The briefing consisted of the following:
- The Secretary General (SG) of the IMO, Mr. Arsenio Antonio Domínguez Velasco, opened the meeting at 15:30
- The SG confirmed that the issue of the so-called Dark Fleet/Shadow Fleet continued to be on his agenda. The next formal conversation on this would be at the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) and he would in addition be reaching out to member states directly.
- The SG reiterated that he had reminded member states that they were still responsible for activities in their jurisdiction even if they outsource day to day management and IMO related activities to third parties and consultants as was sometimes the case.
- The SG noted that the number of issues in and around the Red Sea had decreased substantially
- The SG expressed concern over the ongoing issues of Seafarer Abandonment and Criminalisation of Seafarers, and had asked Member States what actions they were taking to resolve this problem. He noted that there was a scheduled meeting taking place on 16th June at IMO organized by IMO and ILO in collaboration with the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). More detail at Protecting Seafarers
- The SG noted that the UN in general would be experiencing a strain on cash flow as contributions by member states and demands on the UN system were being impacted by world events. There was a need to ensure that UN agencies do not compete and that there is no duplication. Throughout the UN system there is likely to be some reduction in contracting and possibly some staff redundancies. While the IMO was less likely to be as impacted as some other agencies, there was still a need to demonstrate efficiencies in recruitment and procurement at an operational level. Further details are given at: UN Newsroom (UN); UN may cut staff by 20%. (Reuters)
- The Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS), which is a signature product of the IMO, will be reviewed. This will take ideally between 12 to 18 months but definitely less than 2 years
- The IMO will initiate a communication strategy review
- The IMO logo will receive a light facelift to sharpen up its image
- The IMO will look at increasing utilization of Automatic Translation. The issues with these systems are understood but they should still reduce the manpower requirement to some extent; at the same time the SG made a plea to delegations to reduce, where possible, the number of pages in a submission as these all have to be translated into the 6 official languages of the UN
- The SG noted the completion of the Wi-Fi upgrade within the building
- The SG noted that meeting room seating replacement project was continuing well however substantial contributions would be welcome towards the cost of the main assembly room.
- The IMO Museum was to be upgraded
- The SG noted that the cost of electronic access cards had increased substantially, and this was exacerbated by delegation members requesting frequent replacements due to negligence. A scheme may be put in place to charge for replacement cards
- In closing the meeting, the SG reminded delegates to take care when receiving emails purporting to come from IMO (but which were fake) and to be mindful of intellectual property aspects when recirculating IMO information. ISCO clarified its position with the SG regarding re-publishing IMO information in the Newsletter as a not-for-profit organization.
- The SG thanked delegates for attending and closed the meeting at 16:20
