Tanzania considers ratification of two ILO Maritime Conventions

The Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania is working on the ratification of two ILO Conventions, namely, the Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention no. 185 (2003) and the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), 2006 during its current session which is ongoing at the nation’s capital, Dodoma.

The ILO was recently invited to present an overview of the two instruments to the Parliamentary Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee which is charged with coordinating the process of ratification. The Committee has already compiled views of different stakeholders in the maritime industry on the pros and cons of ratifying the convention. The stakeholders include government, ship owners and representatives of seafarers.

The ILO’s overview provided the Committee with clarity on the different articles of the Conventions to enable them to make an informed recommendation to Parliament on ratification. The ILO Country Office in Dar es Salaam worked closely with the Application of Standards Branch in Geneva in preparing and presenting the technical inputs required for the competent authority’s consideration.

The Maritime Labour Convention, was adopted by the International Labour Conference of the ILO, in February 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland. It sets out seafarers’ rights to decent conditions of work and helps to create conditions of fair competition for ship-owners. It is globally applicable, easily understandable, readily updatable and uniformly enforced. To date 82 countries have ratified the MLC (2006) compared to 34 countries for the Seafarers’ Identity convention.