International Maritime Organization (IMO) maritime security training is underway for port facility security officers, managers and designated authority officials in Santo Domingo City, Dominican Republic (12-16 March).
Run by IMO in collaboration with the Dominican Republic Ministry of Defence (Cuerpo Especializado de Seguridad Portuaria), the workshop is training participants on how to perform their duties in line with IMO’s code on International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS Code) and SOLAS Chapter XI-2 (click for details).
Participants are also being taught to train other officials with similar responsibilities.
The workshop follows a 2016 national table top exercise on maritime security, organized in cooperation with the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC).
The 2016 exercise identified a number of recommendations for further training, parts of which are being addressed by this week’s workshop.
IMO facilitates this by helping Member States enhance their maritime security, focussing on what the civil maritime stakeholders, which includes both the shipping and port sectors, can do to protect themselves and to assist governments to protect global maritime trade.
The cornerstone of IMO regulations to address maritime security is the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) chapter XI-2 Special Measures to enhance maritime security, which makes mandatory the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code).