SUA convention: Here is All

you need to know

Written by Capt Rajeev Jassal on April 6, 2018

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 convention, Fund
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.

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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About Capt Rajeev Jassal

Capt. Rajeev Jassal has sailed for over 19 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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6 Comments

Ankit Dubey
Apr 12, 2018
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 ??
Reply

Rajeev Jassal
May 16, 2018
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.
Reply

Shahbaaz Ahmad
Apr 24, 2018
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.