text:
International Atomic Energy Agency

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 as an autonomous organization within the United Nations system; though governed by its own founding treaty, the organization reports to both the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations, and is headquartered at the UN Office at Vienna, Austria.

The IAEA was created in response to growing international concern toward nuclear weapons, especially amid rising tensions between the foremost nuclear powers, the United States and the Soviet Union. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" speech, which called for the creation of an international organization to monitor the global proliferation of nuclear resources and technology, is credited with catalyzing the formation of the IAEA, whose treaty came into force on 29 July 1957 upon U.S. ratification.

The IAEA serves as an intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear technology and nuclear power worldwide. It maintains several programs that encourage the development of peaceful applications of nuclear energy, science, and technology; provide international safeguards against misuse of nuclear technology and nuclear materials; and promote and implement nuclear safety (including radiation protection) and nuclear security standards. The organization also conducts research in nuclear science and provides technical support and training in nuclear technology to countries worldwide, particularly in the developing world.

Following the ratification of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1968, all non-nuclear powers are required to negotiate a safeguards agreement with the IAEA, which is given the authority to monitor nuclear programs and to inspect nuclear facilities. In 2005, the IAEA and its administrative head, Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way".

Missions
The IAEA is generally described as having three main missions:
 * Peaceful uses: Promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy by its member states,
 * Safeguards: Implementing safeguards to verify that nuclear energy is not used for military purposes, and
 * Nuclear safety: Promoting high standards for nuclear safety.

Peaceful uses
According to Article II of the IAEA Statute, the objectives of the IAEA are "to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world" and to "ensure ... that assistance provided by it or at its request or under its supervision or control is not used in such a way as to further any military purpose." Its primary functions in this area, according to Article III, are to encourage research and development, to secure or provide materials, services, equipment, and facilities for Member States, and to foster the exchange of scientific and technical information and training.

Three of the IAEA's six departments are principally charged with promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The Department of Nuclear Energy focuses on providing advice and services to Member States on nuclear power and the nuclear fuel cycle. The Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications focuses on the use of non-power nuclear and isotope techniques to help IAEA Member States in the areas of water, energy, health, biodiversity, and agriculture. The Department of Technical Cooperation provides direct assistance to IAEA Member States, through national, regional, and inter-regional projects through training, expert missions, scientific exchanges, and provision of equipment.

Safeguards
Article II of the IAEA Statute defines the Agency's twin objectives as promoting peaceful uses of atomic energy and " ensur[ing], so far as it is able, that assistance provided by it or at its request or under its supervision or control is not used in such a way as to further any military purpose." To do this, the IAEA is authorized in Article III.A.5 of the Statute "to establish and administer safeguards designed to ensure that special fissionable and other materials, services, equipment, facilities, and information made available by the Agency or at its request or under its supervision or control are not used in such a way as to further any military purpose; and to apply safeguards, at the request of the parties, to any bilateral or multilateral arrangement, or at the request of a State, to any of that State's activities in the field of atomic energy."

The Department of Safeguards is responsible for carrying out this mission, through technical measures designed to verify the correctness and completeness of states' nuclear declarations.

Nuclear safety
The IAEA classifies safety as one of its top three priorities. It spends 8.9 percent of its 352 million-euro ($469 million) regular budget in 2011 on making plants secure from accidents. Its resources are used on the other two priorities: technical co-operation and preventing nuclear weapons proliferation.

The IAEA itself says that, beginning in 1986, in response to the nuclear reactor explosion and disaster near Chernobyl, Ukraine, the IAEA redoubled its efforts in the field of nuclear safety. The IAEA says that the same happened after the Fukushima disaster in Fukushima, Japan.

In June 2011, the IAEA chief said he had "broad support for his plan to strengthen international safety checks on nuclear power plants to help avoid any repeat of Japan's Fukushima crisis". Peer-reviewed safety checks on reactors worldwide, organized by the IAEA, have been proposed.

History
In 1946 United Nations Atomic Energy Commission was founded, but stoped working in 1949 and was disbanded in 1952. In 1953, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed the creation of an international body to both regulate and promote the peaceful use of atomic power (nuclear power), in his Atoms for Peace address to the UN General Assembly. In September 1954, the United States proposed to the General Assembly the creation of an international agency to take control of fissile material, which could be used either for nuclear power or for nuclear weapons. This agency would establish a kind of "nuclear bank".

The United States also called for an international scientific conference on all of the peaceful aspects of nuclear power. By November 1954, it had become clear that the Soviet Union would reject any international custody of fissile material if the United States did not agree to disarmament first, but that a clearinghouse for nuclear transactions might be possible. From 8 to 20 August 1955, the United Nations held the International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland. In October 1957, a Conference on the IAEA Statute was held at the Headquarters of the United Nations to approve the founding document for the IAEA, which was negotiated in 1955–1957 by a group of twelve countries. The Statute of the IAEA was approved on 23 October 1956 and came into force on 29 July 1957.

Former US Congressman W. Sterling Cole served as the IAEA's first Director-General from 1957 to 1961. Cole served only one term, after which the IAEA was headed by two Swedes for nearly four decades: the scientist Sigvard Eklund held the job from 1961 to 1981, followed by former Swedish Foreign Minister Hans Blix, who served from 1981 to 1997. Blix was succeeded as Director General by Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt, who served until November 2009.

Beginning in 1986, in response to the nuclear reactor explosion and disaster near Chernobyl, Ukraine, the IAEA increased its efforts in the field of nuclear safety. The same happened after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Fukushima, Japan.

Both the IAEA and its then Director General, ElBaradei, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. In his acceptance speech in Oslo, ElBaradei stated that only one percent of the money spent on developing new weapons would be enough to feed the entire world, and that, if we hope to escape self-destruction, then nuclear weapons should have no place in our collective conscience, and no role in our security.

On 2 July 2009, Yukiya Amano of Japan was elected as the Director General for the IAEA, defeating Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa and Luis E. Echávarri of Spain. On 3 July 2009, the Board of Governors voted to appoint Yukiya Amano "by acclamation", and IAEA General Conference in September 2009 approved. He took office on 1 December 2009. After Amano's death, his Chief of Coordination Cornel Feruta of Romania was named Acting Director General.

On 2 August 2019, Rafael Grossi was presented as the Argentine candidate to become the Director General of IAEA. On 28 October 2019, the IAEA Board of Governors held its first vote to elect the new Director General, but none of the candidates secured the two-thirds majority (23 votes) in the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors that was needed to be elected. The next day, 29 October, the second voting round was held, and Grossi won 24 votes. He assumed office on 3 December 2019. Following a special meeting of the IAEA General Conference to approve his appointment, on 3 December Grossi became the first Latin American to head the Agency.

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Grossi visited Ukraine multiple times as part of the ongoing efforts to help prevent a nuclear accident during the war. He warned against any complacency towards the dangers that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, was facing. The plant has come under fire multiple times during the war.

General
The IAEA's mission is guided by the interests and needs of Member States, strategic plans, and the vision embodied in the IAEA Statute (see below). Three main pillars – or areas of work – underpin the IAEA's mission: Safety and Security; Science and Technology; and Safeguards and Verification.

The IAEA as an autonomous organization is not under the direct control of the UN, but the IAEA does report to both the UN General Assembly and Security Council. Unlike most other specialized international agencies, the IAEA does much of its work with the Security Council, and not with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The structure and functions of the IAEA are defined by its founding document, the IAEA Statute (see below). The IAEA has three main bodies: the Board of Governors, the General Conference, and the Secretariat.

The IAEA exists to pursue the "safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear sciences and technology" (Pillars 2005). The IAEA executes this mission with three main functions: the inspection of existing nuclear facilities to ensure their peaceful use, providing information and developing standards to ensure the safety and security of nuclear facilities, and as a hub for the various fields of science involved in the peaceful applications of nuclear technology.

The IAEA recognizes knowledge as the nuclear energy industry's most valuable asset and resource, without which the industry cannot operate safely and economically. Following the IAEA General Conference since 2002 resolutions the Nuclear Knowledge Management, a formal program was established to address Member States' priorities in the 21st century.

In 2004, the IAEA developed a Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT). PACT responds to the needs of developing countries to establish, to improve, or to expand radiotherapy treatment programs. The IAEA is raising money to help efforts by its Member States to save lives and reduce the suffering of cancer victims.

The IAEA has established programs to help developing countries in planning to build systematically the capability to manage a nuclear power program, including the Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Group, which has carried out Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review missions in Indonesia, Jordan, Thailand and Vietnam. The IAEA reports that roughly 60 countries are considering how to include nuclear power in their energy plans.

To enhance the sharing of information and experience among IAEA Member States concerning the seismic safety of nuclear facilities, in 2008 the IAEA established the International Seismic Safety Centre. This centre is establishing safety standards and providing for their application in relation to site selection, site evaluation and seismic design.

The IAEA has its headquarters since its founding in Vienna, Austria. The IAEA has two "Regional Safeguards Offices" which are located in Toronto, Canada, and in Tokyo, Japan. The IAEA also has two liaison offices which are located in New York City, United States, and in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition, the IAEA has laboratories and research centers located in Seibersdorf, Austria, in Monaco and in Trieste, Italy.

Board of Governors

The Board of Governors is one of two policy-making bodies of the IAEA. The Board consists of 22 member states elected by the General Conference, and at least 10 member states nominated by the outgoing Board. The outgoing Board designates the ten members who are the most advanced in atomic energy technology, plus the most advanced members from any of the following areas that are not represented by the first ten: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East, and South Asia, South East Asia, the Pacific, and the Far East. These members are designated for one year terms. The General Conference elects 22 members from the remaining nations to two-year terms. Eleven are elected each year. The 22 elected members must also represent a stipulated geographic diversity.

The Board, in its five-yearly meetings, is responsible for making most of the policies of the IAEA. The Board makes recommendations to the General Conference on IAEA activities and budget, is responsible for publishing IAEA standards and appoints the Director-General subject to General Conference approval. Board members each receive one vote. Budget matters require a two-thirds majority. All other matters require only a simple majority. The simple majority also has the power to stipulate issues that will thereafter require a two-thirds majority. Two-thirds of all Board members must be present to call a vote. The Board elects its own chairman.

General Conference
The General Conference is made up of all 178 member states. It meets once a year, typically in September, to approve the actions and budgets passed on from the Board of Governors. The General Conference also approves the nominee for Director General and requests reports from the Board on issues in question (Statute). Each member receives one vote. Issues of budget, Statute amendment and suspension of a member's privileges require a two-thirds majority and all other issues require a simple majority. Similar to the Board, the General Conference can, by simple majority, designate issues to require a two-thirds majority. The General Conference elects a President at each annual meeting to facilitate an effective meeting. The President only serves for the duration of the session (Statute).

The main function of the General Conference is to serve as a forum for debate on current issues and policies. Any of the other IAEA organs, the Director-General, the Board and member states can table issues to be discussed by the General Conference (IAEA Primer). This function of the General Conference is almost identical to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Secretariat
The Secretariat is the professional and general service staff of the IAEA. The Secretariat is headed by the Director General. The Director General is responsible for enforcement of the actions passed by the Board of Governors and the General Conference. The Director General is selected by the Board and approved by the General Conference for renewable four-year terms. The Director General oversees six departments that do the actual work in carrying out the policies of the IAEA: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Safety and Security, Nuclear Sciences and Applications, Safeguards, Technical Cooperation, and Management.

The IAEA budget is in two parts. The regular budget funds most activities of the IAEA and is assessed to each member nation (€344 million in 2014). The Technical Cooperation Fund is funded by voluntary contributions with a general target in the US$90 million range.

Criticism

In 2011, Russian nuclear accident specialist Iouli Andreev was critical of the response to Fukushima, and says that the IAEA did not learn from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. He has accused the IAEA and corporations of "wilfully ignoring lessons from the world's worst nuclear accident 25 years ago to protect the industry's expansion". The IAEA's role "as an advocate for nuclear power has made it a target for protests".

The journal Nature has reported that the IAEA response to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan was "sluggish and sometimes confusing", drawing calls for the agency to "take a more proactive role in nuclear safety". But nuclear experts say that the agency's complicated mandate and the constraints imposed by its member states mean that reforms will not happen quickly or easily, although its INES "emergency scale is very likely to be revisited" given the confusing way in which it was used in Japan.

Some scientists say that the Fukushima nuclear accidents have revealed that the nuclear industry lacks sufficient oversight, leading to renewed calls to redefine the mandate of the IAEA so that it can better police nuclear power plants worldwide. There are several problems with the IAEA says Najmedin Meshkati of University of Southern California: It recommends safety standards, but member states are not required to comply; it promotes nuclear energy, but it also monitors nuclear use; it is the sole global organisation overseeing the nuclear energy industry, yet it is also weighed down by checking compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In 2011, the journal Nature reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency should be strengthened to make independent assessments of nuclear safety and that "the public would be better served by an IAEA more able to deliver frank and independent assessments of nuclear crises as they unfold".

Membership

The process of joining the IAEA is fairly simple. Normally, a State would notify the Director General of its desire to join, and the Director would submit the application to the Board for consideration. If the Board recommends approval, and the General Conference approves the application for membership, the State must then submit its instrument of acceptance of the IAEA Statute to the United States, which functions as the depositary Government for the IAEA Statute. The State is considered a member when its acceptance letter is deposited. The United States then informs the IAEA, which notifies other IAEA Member States. Signature and ratification of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) are not preconditions for membership in the IAEA.

The IAEA has 178 member states. Most UN members and the Holy See are Member States of the IAEA.

Four states have withdrawn from the IAEA. North Korea was a Member State from 1974 to 1994, but withdrew after the Board of Governors found it in non-compliance with its safeguards agreement and suspended most technical co-operation. Nicaragua became a member in 1957, withdrew its membership in 1970, and rejoined in 1977, Honduras joined in 1957, withdrew in 1967, and rejoined in 2003, while Cambodia joined in 1958, withdrew in 2003, and rejoined in 2009.

Regional Cooperative Agreements
There are four regional cooperative areas within IAEA, that share information, and organize conferences within their regions:

AFRA
The African Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology (AFRA): • 🇩🇿

• 🇹🇩

• 🇰🇪

• 🇲🇦

• 🇿🇦

• 🇦🇴

• 🇨🇮

• 🇱🇸

• 🇲🇿

• 🇸🇩

• 🇧🇯

• 🇨🇩

• 🇱🇾

• 🇳🇦

• 🇹🇿

• 🇧🇼

• 🇪🇬

• 🇲🇬

• 🇳🇪

• 🇹🇳

• 🇧🇫

• 🇪🇷

• 🇲🇼

• 🇳🇬

• 🇺🇬

• 🇧🇮

• 🇪🇹

• undefined

• 🇸🇳

• 🇿🇲

• 🇨🇲

• 🇬🇦

• undefined

• 🇸🇨

• 🇿🇼

• 🇨🇫

• 🇬🇭

• 🇲🇺

• 🇸🇱

ARASIA
Cooperative Agreement for Arab States in Asia for Research, Development and Training related to Nuclear Science and Technology (ARASIA): • 🇮🇶

• 🇯🇴

• 🇱🇧

• 🇸🇦

• 🇴🇲

• 🇶🇦

• 🇸🇾

• 🇦🇪

• 🇾🇪

RCA
Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology for Asia and the Pacific (RCA):

• 🇦🇺

• 🇧🇩

• 🇰🇭

• 🇨🇳

• 🇫🇯

• 🇮🇳

• 🇮🇩

•

• 🇰🇷

• 🇱🇦

• 🇲🇾

• 🇲🇳

• 🇲🇲

• 🇳🇵

• 🇳🇿

• 🇵🇰

• 🇵🇼

• 🇵🇭

• 🇸🇬

• 🇱🇰

• 🇹🇭

• 🇻🇳

ARCAL
Cooperation Agreement for the Promotion of Nuclear Science and Technology in Latin America and the Caribbean (ARCAL): • 🇦🇷

• 🇧🇴

• 🇧🇷

• 🇨🇱

• 🇨🇴

• 🇨🇷

• 🇨🇺

• 🇪🇨

• 🇸🇻

• 🇬🇹

• 🇭🇹

• 🇭🇳

• 🇯🇲

• 🇲🇽

• 🇳🇮

• 🇵🇦

• 🇵🇾

• 🇵🇪

• 🇩🇴

• 🇺🇾

• 🇻🇪

Publications
Typically issued in July each year, the IAEA Annual Report summarizes and highlights developments over the past year in major areas of the Agency's work. It includes a summary of major issues, activities, and achievements, and status tables and graphs related to safeguards, safety, and science and technology. Alongside the Annual Report, the IAEA also issues Topical Reviews which detail specific sectors of its work, comprising the Nuclear Safety Review, Nuclear Security Review, Safeguards Implementation Report, Nuclear Technology Review, and Technical Cooperation Report.

IAEA Annual Report 2022
In the 2022 Annual Report, the IAEA demonstrated its commitment to its objectives despite global challenges. The report showcases the IAEA's initiatives aimed at fostering the safe, secure, and peaceful applications of nuclear technology. The agency's "Rays of Hope" initiative marked an effort to reduce disparities in cancer treatment by increasing the availability of radiation medicine, with a particular emphasis on African nations, in partnership with relevant professional societies and the World Health Organization (WHO). In response to the emergent threat posed by zoonotic diseases, the IAEA instituted the Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (ZODIAC) initiative, which encourages international cooperation with member states, the WHO, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), to enhance preparedness and response. The "NUTeC Plastics" initiative reflects the agency's engagement with environmental concerns, utilizing nuclear technology to address the growing problem of plastic pollution. The IAEA also made strides in the field of nuclear energy with the introduction of the Nuclear Harmonization and Standardization Initiative (NHSI), aiming to harmonize regulatory standards to facilitate the deployment of small modular reactors, a critical component in the global pursuit of net-zero emissions.

title: International Atomic Energy Agency


text:
International Civil Aviation Organization

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth. The ICAO headquarters are located in the Quartier international de Montréal of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The ICAO Council adopts standards and recommended practices concerning air navigation, its infrastructure, flight inspection, prevention of unlawful interference, and facilitation of border-crossing procedures for international civil aviation. ICAO defines the protocols for air accident investigation that are followed by transport safety authorities in countries signatory to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.

The Air Navigation Commission (ANC) is the technical body within ICAO. The commission is composed of 19 commissioners, nominated by the ICAO's contracting states and appointed by the ICAO Council. Commissioners serve as independent experts, who although nominated by their states, do not serve as state or political representatives. International Standards and Recommended Practices are developed under the direction of the ANC through the formal process of ICAO Panels. Once approved by the commission, standards are sent to the council, the political body of ICAO, for consultation and coordination with the member states before final adoption.

ICAO is distinct from other international air transport organisations, particularly because it alone is vested with international authority (among signatory states): other organisations include the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade association representing airlines; the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO), an organisation for Air navigation service providers (ANSPs); and the Airports Council International, a trade association of airport authorities.

20th century
The forerunner to ICAO was the International Commission for Air Navigation (ICAN). It held its first convention in 1903 in Berlin, Germany, but no agreements were reached among the eight countries that attended. At the second convention in 1906, also held in Berlin, twenty-seven countries attended. The third convention, held in London in 1912, allocated the first radio callsigns for use by aircraft. ICAN continued to operate until 1945.

The Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention, in Chicago, was signed by 52 countries on 7 December 1944. Under its terms, a Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization was to be established, to be replaced in turn by a permanent organization when twenty-six countries ratified the convention. PICAO began operating on 6 June 1945, replacing ICAN. The 26th country ratified the convention on 5 March 1947 and, consequently, PICAO was disestablished on 4 April 1947 and replaced by ICAO, which began operations the same day.

In October 1947, ICAO became an agency of the United Nations under its Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

21st century
In April 2013, Qatar offered to serve as the new permanent seat of the Organization. Qatar promised to construct a massive new headquarters for ICAO and to cover all moving expenses, stating that Montreal "was too far from Europe and Asia", "had cold winters", was hard to attend due to the Canadian government's slow issuance of visas, and that the taxes imposed on ICAO by Canada were too high. According to The Globe and Mail, Qatar's invitation was at least partly motivated by the pro-Israel foreign policy of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Approximately a month later, Qatar withdrew its bid after a separate proposal to the ICAO's governing council to move the ICAO triennial conference to Doha was defeated by a vote of 22–14.

Taiwan controversy
In January 2020, ICAO blocked several Twitter users, including think-tank analysts, U.S. Congressional staff, and journalists, who mentioned Taiwan in tweets related to ICAO. Many of the tweets were related to the COVID-19 pandemic and Taiwan's exclusion from ICAO safety and health bulletins due to pressure from China. In response, ICAO issued a tweet stating that publishers of "irrelevant, compromising and offensive material" would be "precluded".

Since that action, the organization has followed a policy of blocking anyone asking about it.

The United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs harshly criticized ICAO's perceived failure to uphold principles of fairness, inclusion, and transparency by silencing non-disruptive opposing voices. Senator Marco Rubio also criticized the move. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Taiwan) (MOFA) and Taiwanese legislators criticized the move with MOFA head Jaushieh Joseph Wu tweeting in support of those blocked.

In January 2020, Anthony Philbin, chief of communications of the ICAO Secretary General, rejected criticism of ICAO's handling of the situation, saying, "We felt we were completely warranted in taking the steps we did to defend the integrity of the information and discussions our followers should reasonably expect from our feeds." In exchanges with International Flight Network, Philbin refused to acknowledge the existence of Taiwan.

On 1 February 2020, the United States Department of State issued a press release heavily criticizing ICAO's actions, characterizing them as "outrageous, unacceptable, and not befitting of a UN organization."

Statute
The 9th edition of the Convention on International Civil Aviation includes modifications from years 1948 up to 2006. ICAO refers to its current edition of the convention as the Statute and designates it as ICAO Document 7300/9. The convention has 19 Annexes that are listed by title in the article Convention on International Civil Aviation.

Membership
, there are 193 ICAO members, consisting of 192 of the 193 UN members (all but Liechtenstein, which lacks an international airport), plus the Cook Islands.

Despite Liechtenstein not being a direct party to ICAO, its government delegated Switzerland to enter into the treaty on its behalf, and the treaty is applicable in the territory of Liechtenstein.

Exclusion of Taiwan
The Republic of China was a founding member of ICAO. Following its retreat to Taiwan, it was eventually replaced by the People's Republic of China as the legal representative of China in 1971.

In 2013, Taiwan was for the first time invited to attend the ICAO Assembly, at its 38th session, as a guest under the name of "Chinese Taipei". , it has not been invited to participate again, due to renewed PRC pressure.

The host government, Canada, supports Taiwan's inclusion in ICAO. Support also comes from Canada's commercial sector with the president of the Air Transport Association of Canada saying in 2019 that "It's about safety in aviation so from a strictly operational and non-political point of view, I believe Taiwan should be there."

Council
The ICAO Council is elected by the Assembly every three years and consists of 36 members elected in three groups. The present council was elected in October 2022. The structure of the present Council is as follows:

Air Navigation Commission
The Air Navigation Commission (ANC) is the ICAO Council technical executive body in charge of 17 of the 19 Annexes to the Chicago Convention. ANC develops and recommend ICAO minimal standards that are related to these Annexes. To review and/or finalize the ongoing developments the commission meets for three sessions per year. Each session normally considers a number of documents being developments of ANC expert Panels. The ANC is composed of nineteen commissioners nominated by ICAO States in various aviation domains. However, legally these commissioners do not represent the interest of their State or any particular State or region. They have to conduct independently in the interest of the entire international civil aviation community. Additionally, several other representatives from ICAO States and up to eight members from the civil aviation industry may be invited to take part in ANC meetings as observers.

Standards
ICAO also standardizes certain functions for use in the airline industry, such as the Aeronautical Message Handling System (AMHS). This makes it a standards organization.

Each country should have an accessible Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP), based on standards defined by ICAO, containing information essential to air navigation. Countries are required to update their AIP manuals every 28 days and so provide definitive regulations, procedures and information for each country about airspace and airports. ICAO's standards also dictate that temporary hazards to aircraft must be regularly published using NOTAMs.

ICAO defines an International Standard Atmosphere (also known as ICAO Standard Atmosphere), a model of the standard variation of pressure, temperature, density, and viscosity with altitude in the Earth's atmosphere. This is useful in calibrating instruments and designing aircraft. The standardized pressure is also used in calibrating instruments in-flight, particularly above the transition altitude.

ICAO is active in infrastructure management, including communication, navigation and surveillance / air traffic management (CNS/ATM) systems, which employ digital technologies (like satellite systems with various levels of automation) in order to maintain a seamless global air traffic management system.

Passport standards
ICAO has published standards for machine-readable passports. Machine-readable passports have an area where some of the information otherwise written in textual form is also written as strings of alphanumeric characters, printed in a manner suitable for optical character recognition, which enables border controllers and other law enforcement agents to process such passports more quickly without having to enter the information manually into a computer.

ICAO's technical standard for machine-readable passports is contained in Document 9303 Machine Readable Travel Documents.

A more recent standard covers biometric passports. These contain biometrics to authenticate the identity of travellers. The passport's critical information is stored on a tiny RFID computer chip, much like information stored on smart cards. Like some smart cards, the passport book design calls for an embedded contactless chip that is able to hold digital signature data to ensure the integrity of the passport and the biometric data.

Registered codes
Both ICAO and IATA have their own airport and airline code systems.

Airport codes
ICAO uses 4-letter airport codes (vs. IATA's 3-letter codes). The ICAO code is based on the region and country of the airport—for example, Charles de Gaulle Airport has an ICAO code of LFPG, where L indicates Southern Europe, F, France, PG, Paris de Gaulle, while Orly Airport has the code LFPO (the 3rd letter sometimes refers to the particular flight information region (FIR) or the last two may be arbitrary). In most parts of the world, ICAO and IATA codes are unrelated; for example, Charles de Gaulle Airport has an IATA code of CDG. However, the location prefix for the continental United States is K, and ICAO codes are usually the IATA code with this prefix. For example, the ICAO code for Los Angeles International Airport is KLAX. Canada follows a similar pattern, where a prefix of C is usually added to an IATA code to create the ICAO code. For example, Calgary International Airport is YYC or CYYC. (In contrast, airports in Hawaii are in the Pacific region and so have ICAO codes that start with PH; Kona International Airport's code is PHKO. Similarly, airports in Alaska have ICAO codes that start with PA. Merrill Field, for instance is PAMR.) Not all airports are assigned codes in both systems; for example, airports that do not have airline service do not need an IATA code.

Airline codes
ICAO also assigns three-letter airline codes versus the more-familiar two-letter IATA codes—for example, UAL vs. UA for United Airlines. ICAO also provides telephony designators to aircraft operators worldwide, a one- or two-word designator used on the radio, usually, but not always, similar to the aircraft operator name. For example, the identifier for Japan Airlines International is JAL and the designator is Japan Air, but Aer Lingus is EIN and Shamrock. Thus, a Japan Airlines flight numbered 111 would be written as "JAL111" and pronounced "Japan Air One One One" on the radio, while a similarly numbered Aer Lingus would be written as "EIN111" and pronounced "Shamrock One One One". In the US, FAA practices require the digits of the flight number to be spoken in group format ("Japan Air One Eleven" in the above example) while individual digits are used for the aircraft tail number used for unscheduled civil flights.

Aircraft registrations
ICAO maintains the standards for aircraft registration, including the alphanumeric codes that identify the country of registration.

Aircraft type designators
ICAO is also responsible for issuing two to four character alphanumeric aircraft type designators for those aircraft types which are most commonly provided with air traffic service. These codes provide an abbreviated aircraft type identification, typically used in flight plans. For example, the Boeing 747-100, -200 and -300 are given the type designators B741, B742 and B743 respectively.

International System of Units
Since 2010, ICAO recommends a unification of units of measurement within aviation based on the International System of Units (SI), using:
 * kilometres per hour (km/h) for speed during travel.
 * metres per second (m/s) for wind speed during landing.
 * kilometres (km) for distance.
 * metres (m) for elevation.

Non-SI units have been permitted for temporary use since 1979, but a termination date has not yet been established, which would complete metrication of worldwide aviation, and the following units are still in widespread use within commercial aviation: inches of mercury are used in Japan and North America to measure pressure, although sometimes METAR at Japanese airports show only hPa.
 * knots (kn or kt) for speed.
 * nautical mile (NM) for distance.
 * foot (ft) for elevation.

Aviation in Russia and China currently use km/h for reporting airspeed, and many present-day European glider planes also indicate airspeed in kilometres per hour. China and North Korea use metres for reporting altitude when communicating with pilots. Russia also formerly used metres exclusively for reporting altitude, but in 2011 changed to feet for high altitude flight. From February 2017, Russian airspace started transitioning to reporting altitude in feet only. Runway lengths are now commonly given in metres worldwide, except in North America where feet are commonly used.

The following table summarizes units commonly used in flight and ground operations and their recommended replacement. A full list of recommended units can be found in annex 5 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.

$†$ Altitude, elevation, height.

Regions and regional offices
ICAO has a headquarters, seven regional offices, and one regional sub-office:
 * Headquarters – Montreal, Quebec, Canada
 * Asia and Pacific (APAC) – Bangkok, Thailand; Sub-office – Beijing, China
 * Eastern and Southern African (ESAF) – Nairobi, Kenya
 * Europe and North Atlantic (EUR/NAT) – Paris, France
 * Middle East (MID) – Cairo, Egypt
 * North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACC) – Mexico City, Mexico
 * South American (SAM) – Lima, Peru
 * Western and Central African (WACAF) – Dakar, Senegal

Environment
Emissions from international aviation are specifically excluded from the targets agreed under the Kyoto Protocol. Instead, the Protocol invites developed countries to pursue the limitation or reduction of emissions through the International Civil Aviation Organization. ICAO's environmental committee continues to consider the potential for using market-based measures such as trading and charging, but this work is unlikely to lead to global action. It is currently developing guidance for states who wish to include aviation in an emissions trading scheme (ETS) to meet their Kyoto commitments, and for airlines who wish to participate voluntarily in a trading scheme.

Emissions from domestic aviation are included within the Kyoto targets agreed by countries. This has led to some national policies such as fuel and emission taxes for domestic air travel in the Netherlands and Norway, respectively. Although some countries tax the fuel used by domestic aviation, there is no duty on kerosene used on international flights.

ICAO is currently opposed to the inclusion of aviation in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS). The EU, however, is pressing ahead with its plans to include aviation.

ICAO has been called "flawed and biased in favour of the industry" by Jo Dardenne, the manager for aviation at Transport & Environment.

Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation
On 6 October 2016, the ICAO finalized an agreement among its 191 member nations to address the more than $†$ of carbon dioxide emitted annually by international passenger and cargo flights. The agreement will use an offsetting scheme called CORSIA (the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) under which forestry and other carbon-reducing activities are directly funded, amounting to about 2% of annual revenues for the sector. Rules against 'double counting' should ensure that existing forest protection efforts are not recycled. The scheme did not take effect until 2021 and will be voluntary until 2027, but many countries, including the US and China, have promised to begin at its 2020 inception date. Under the agreement, the global aviation emissions target is a 50% reduction by 2050 relative to 2005. NGO reaction to the deal was mixed.

The agreement has critics. It is not aligned with the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which set the objective of restricting global warming to 1.5 to 2 °C. A late draft of the agreement would have required the air transport industry to assess its share of global carbon budgeting to meet that objective, but the text was removed in the agreed version. CORSIA will regulate only about 25 percent of aviation's international emissions, since it grandfathers all emissions below the 2020 level, allowing unregulated growth until then. Only 65 nations will participate in the initial voluntary period, not including significant emitters Russia, India and perhaps Brazil. The agreement does not cover domestic emissions, which are 40% of the global industry's overall emissions. One observer of the ICAO convention made this summary: "Airline claims that flying will now be green are a myth. Taking a plane is the fastest and cheapest way to fry the planet and this deal won't reduce demand for jet fuel one drop. Instead offsetting aims to cut emissions in other industries," although another critic called it "a timid step in the right direction."

Air quality
Emissions limits for aircraft engines are defined by the Annex 16, Volume 2 of the ICAO Technology Standards, they include standards for hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, NOx, smoke and particulate matter for local air quality near airports, below 3,000 feet. The first ICAO emissions regulation was adopted in 1981, and more stringent NOx standards were subsequently adopted: CAEP/2 in 1993, CAEP/4 in 1999, CAEP/6 in 2005 and CAEP/8 in 2011. Higher bypass ratios, lean burn and Rich Quick Quench Lean combustor design can reduce NOx emissions.

Investigations of air disasters
Most air accident investigations are carried out by an agency of a country that is associated in some way with the accident. For example, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch conducts accident investigations on behalf of the British Government. ICAO has conducted four investigations involving air disasters, of which two were passenger airliners shot down while in international flight over hostile territory.
 * 1) Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 which was shot down on 21 February 1973 by Israeli F-4 jets over the Sinai Peninsula during a period of tension that led to the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War killing 108 people.
 * 2) Korean Air Lines Flight 007, which was shot down on 1 September 1983 by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor near Moneron Island just west of Sakhalin Island during a period of heightened Cold War tension killing all 269 people on board including U.S. Representative Larry McDonald.
 * 3) UTA Flight 772, which was destroyed by a bomb on 19 September 1989 above the Sahara Desert in Niger, en route from N'Djamena, Chad, to Paris, France. The explosion caused the aircraft to break up, killing all 156 passengers and 15 crew members, including the wife of U.S. Ambassador Robert L. Pugh. Investigators determined that a bomb placed in the cargo hold by Chadian rebels backed by Libya was responsible for the explosion. A French court convicted in absentia six Libyans of planning and implementing the attack.
 * 4) The 1996 shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue aircraft on 24 February 1996, when two civilian aircraft operating north of Cuba were shot down by two jets of the Cuban Air Force. The Cuban military alleged that aircraft operated by the group Brothers to the Rescue had scattered propaganda leaflets onto Cuba prior to the incident, and issued orders that such aircraft be shot down. All four crew members aboard the two aircraft were killed, whilst a third aircraft managed to escape and return to the American mainland.

Drone regulations and registration
ICAO is looking at having a singular ledger for drone registration to help law enforcement globally. Currently, ICAO is responsible for creating drone regulations across the globe, and it is expected that it will only maintain the registry. This activity is seen as a forerunner to global regulations on flying drones under the auspices of the ICAO.

ICAO currently maintains the 'UAS Regulation Portal' for various countries to list their country's UAS regulations and also review the best practices from across the globe.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
International Maritime Organization

The International Maritime Organization (IMO; Organisation maritime internationale; Organización Marítima Internacional) is a specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating maritime transport. The IMO was established following agreement at a UN conference held in Geneva in 1948 and the IMO came into existence ten years later, meeting for the first time on 17 March 1958. Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, the IMO, in 2024, has 176 Member States and three Associate Members.

The IMO's primary purpose is to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping and its remit today includes maritime safety, environmental concerns, legal matters, technical co-operation, maritime security and the efficiency of shipping. IMO is governed by an assembly of members which meets every two years. Its finance and organization is administered by a council of 40 members elected from the assembly. The work of IMO is conducted through five committees and these are supported by technical subcommittees. Other UN organisations may observe the proceedings of the IMO. Observer status is granted to qualified non-governmental organisations.

IMO is supported by a permanent secretariat of employees who are representative of the organisation's members. The secretariat is composed of a Secretary-General who is periodically elected by the assembly, and various divisions such as those for marine safety, environmental protection and a conference section.

History

IMO was established in 1948 following a UN conference in Geneva to bring the regulation of the safety of shipping into an international framework. Hitherto such international conventions had been initiated piecemeal, notably the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS), first adopted in 1914 following the Titanic disaster. Under the name of the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO), IMO's first task was to update the SOLAS convention; the resulting 1960 convention was subsequently recast and updated in 1974 and it is that convention that has been subsequently modified and updated to adapt to changes in safety requirements and technology.Since 1978, every last Thursday of September has been celebrated as World Maritime Day. The day that coincides with the establishment of the International Maritime Organisation in 1958.

When IMCO began its operations in 1959 certain other pre-existing conventions were brought under its aegis, most notable the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil (OILPOL) 1954. In January 1959, IMO began to maintain and promote the 1954 OILPOL Convention. Under the guidance of IMO, the convention was amended in 1962, 1969, and 1971. The first meetings of the newly formed IMCO were held in London in 1959.

As oil trade and industry developed, many people in the industry began to recognise a need for further improvements in regards to oil pollution prevention at sea. This became increasingly apparent in 1967, when the tanker Torrey Canyon spilled 120,000 tons of crude oil when it ran aground entering the English Channel The Torrey Canyon grounding was the largest oil pollution incident recorded up to that time. This incident prompted a series of new conventions. IMO held an emergency session of its council to deal with the need to readdress regulations pertaining to maritime pollution. In 1969, the IMO Assembly decided to host an international gathering in 1973 dedicated to this issue. The goal at hand was to develop an international agreement for controlling general environmental contamination by ships when out at sea. During the next few years IMO brought to the forefront a series of measures designed to prevent large ship accidents and to minimise their effects. It also detailed how to deal with the environmental threat caused by routine ship duties such as the cleaning of oil cargo tanks or the disposal of engine room wastes. By tonnage, the aforementioned was a bigger problem than accidental pollution. The most significant development to come out of this conference was the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973 (MARPOL). It covers not only accidental and operational oil pollution but also different types of pollution by chemicals, goods in packaged form, sewage, garbage and air pollution. The original MARPOL was signed on 17 February 1973, but did not come into force due to lack of ratifications. The current convention is a combination of 1973 Convention and the 1978 Protocol. It entered into force on 2 October 1983. As of January 2018, 156 states, representing 99.42 per cent of the world's shipping tonnage, are signatories to the MARPOL convention.

As well as updates to MARPOL and SOLAS, the IMO facilitated several updated international maritime conventions in the mid to late 20th century, including the International Convention on Load Lines in 1966 (replacing an earlier 1930 Convention), the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea in 1972 (also replacing an earlier set of rules) and the STCW Convention in 1978. In 1975, the assembly of the IMO decided that future conventions of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and other IMO instruments should use SI units only. As such, sea transportation is one of few industrial areas that still commonly uses non-metric units such as the nautical mile (nmi) for distance and knots (kn) for speed or velocity.

In 1982, IMCO was renamed as the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Throughout its existence, the IMO has continued to produce new and updated conventions across a wide range of maritime issues covering not only safety of life and marine pollution but also encompassing safe navigation, search and rescue, wreck removal, tonnage measurement, liability and compensation, ship recycling, the training and certification of seafarers, and piracy. More recently SOLAS has been amended to bring an increased focus on maritime security through the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code. The IMO has also increased its focus on smoke emissions from ships. In 1983, the IMO established the World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden and also facilitated the adoption of the IGC Code. In 1991, the IMO facilitated the adoption of the International Grain Code.

In December 2002, new amendments to the 1974 SOLAS Convention were enacted by the IMO. These amendments gave rise to the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code, which went into effect on 1 July 2004. The concept of the code is to provide layered and redundant defences against smuggling, terrorism, piracy, stowaways, etc. The ISPS Code required most ships and port facilities engaged in international trade to establish and maintain strict security procedures as specified in ship and port specific Ship Security Plans and Port Facility Security Plans.

Headquarters
The IMO headquarters are located in a large purpose-built building facing the River Thames on the Albert Embankment, in Lambeth, London. The organisation moved into its new headquarters in late 1982, with the building being officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 May 1983. The architects of the building were Douglass Marriott, Worby & Robinson. The front of the building is dominated by a seven-metre high, ten-tonne bronze sculpture of the bow of a ship, with a lone seafarer maintaining a look-out. The previous headquarters of IMO were at 101 Piccadilly (now the home of the Embassy of Japan), prior to that at 22 Berners Street in Fitzrovia and originally in Chancery Lane.

Structure
The IMO consists of an Assembly, a Council and five main Committees. The organization is led by a Secretary-General. A number of Sub-Committees support the work of the main technical committees.

Governance of IMO
The governing body of the International Maritime Organization is the Assembly which meets every two years. In between Assembly sessions a Council, consisting of 40 Member States elected by the Assembly, acts as the governing body. The technical work of the International Maritime Organization is carried out by a series of Committees. The Secretariat consists of some 300 international civil servants headed by a Secretary-General.

The current Secretary-General is Arsenio Dominguez who took office for a four year term on 1 January 2024, having been elected in July 2023. The previous Secretary-General was Kitack Lim from South Korea elected for a four-year term at the 114th session of the IMO Council in June 2015 and at the 29th session of the IMO's Assembly in November 2015. His mandate started on 1 January 2016. At the 31st session of the Assembly in 2019 he was re-appointed for a second term, ending on 31 December 2023.

Technical committees
The technical work of the International Maritime Organisation is carried out by five principal Committees. These include:
 * The Maritime Safety Committee (MSC)
 * The Marine environment Protection Committee (MEPC)
 * The Legal Committee
 * The Technical Cooperation Committee, for capacity building
 * The Facilitation Committee, to simplify the documentation and formalities required in international shipping. THe Committees meet once or twice a year attended by Member States and NGOs.

Maritime Safety Committee
It is regulated in the Article 28(a) of the Convention on the IMO:

"ARTICLE 28 (a) The Maritime Safety Committee shall consider any matter within the scope of the Organization concerned with aids to navigation, construction and equipment of vessels, manning from a safety standpoint, rules for the prevention of collisions, handling of dangerous cargoes, maritime safety procedures and requirements, hydrographic information, log-books and navigational records, marine casualty investigation, salvage and rescue, and any other matters directly affecting maritime safety.

(b) The Maritime Safety Committee shall provide machinery for performing any duties assigned to it by this Convention, the Assembly or the Council, or any duty within the scope of this Article which may be assigned to it by or under any other international instrument and accepted by the Organization.

(c) Having regard to the provisions of Article 25, the Maritime Safety Committee, upon request by the Assembly or the Council or, if it deems such action useful in the interests of its own work, shall maintain such close relationship with other bodies as may further the purposes of the Organization" The Maritime Safety Committee is the most senior of these and is the main Technical Committee; it oversees the work of its nine sub-committees and initiates new topics. One broad topic it deals with is the effect of the human element on casualties; this work has been put to all of the sub-committees, but meanwhile, the Maritime Safety Committee has developed a code for the management of ships which will ensure that agreed operational procedures are in place and followed by the ship and shore-side staff.

Sub-Committees
The MSC and MEPC are assisted in their work by a number of sub-committees which are open to all Member States. The committees are:

 * Sub-Committee on Human Element, Training and Watchkeeping (HTW)
 * Sub-Committee on Implementation of IMO Instruments (III)
 * Sub-Committee on Navigation, Communications and Search and Rescue (NCSR)
 * Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR)
 * Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Construction (SDC)
 * Sub-Committee on Ship Systems and Equipment (SSE)
 * Sub-Committee on Carriage of Cargoes and Containers (CCC).

The names of the IMO sub-committees were changed in 2013. Prior to 2013 there were nine Sub-Committees as follows:

 * Bulk Liquids and Gases (BLG)
 * Carriage of Dangerous Goods, Solid Cargoes and Containers(DSC)
 * Fire Protection (FP)
 * Radio-communications and Search and Rescue (COMSAR)
 * Safety of Navigation (NAV)
 * Ship Design and Equipment (DE)
 * Stability and Load Lines and Fishing Vessels Safety (SLF)
 * Standards of Training and Watchkeeping (STW)
 * Flag State Implementation (FSI)

Membership
To become a member of the IMO, a state ratifies a multilateral treaty known as the Convention on the International Maritime Organization. As of 2020, there are 175 member states of the IMO, which includes 174 of the UN member states plus the Cook Islands. The first state to ratify the convention was Canada in 1948.

These are the current members with the year they joined:

 * 🇦🇱 Albania (1993)
 * 🇩🇿 Algeria (1963)
 * 🇦🇴 Angola (1977)
 * 🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda (1986)
 * 🇦🇷 Argentina (1953)
 * 🇦🇲 Armenia (2018)
 * 🇦🇺 Australia (1952)
 * 🇦🇹 Austria (1975)
 * 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan (1995)
 * 🇧🇸 Bahamas (1976)
 * 🇧🇭 Bahrain (1976)
 * 🇧🇩 Bangladesh (1976)
 * 🇧🇧 Barbados (1970)
 * 🇧🇾 Belarus (2016)
 * 🇧🇪 Belgium (1951)
 * 🇧🇿 Belize (1990)
 * 🇧🇯 Benin (1980)
 * 🇧🇴 Bolivia (1987)
 * 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina (1993)
 * 🇧🇼 Botswana (2021)
 * 🇧🇷 Brazil (1963)
 * 🇧🇳 Brunei Darussalam (1984)
 * 🇧🇬 Bulgaria (1960)
 * Cabo Verde (1976)
 * 🇰🇭 Cambodia (1961)
 * 🇨🇲 Cameroon (1961)
 * 🇨🇦 Canada (1948)
 * 🇨🇱 Chile (1972)
 * 🇨🇳 China (1973)
 * 🇨🇴 Colombia (1974)
 * 🇰🇲 Comoros (2001)
 * 🇨🇩 Congo (1975)
 * 🇨🇰 Cook Islands (2008)
 * 🇨🇷 Costa Rica (1981)
 * 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire (1960)
 * 🇭🇷 Croatia (1992)
 * 🇨🇺 Cuba (1966)
 * 🇨🇾 Cyprus (1973)
 * Czechia (1993)
 * Democratic People's Republic of Korea (1986)
 * Democratic Republic of the Congo (1973)
 * 🇩🇰 Denmark (1959)
 * 🇩🇯 Djibouti (1979)
 * 🇩🇲 Dominica (1979)
 * 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic (1953)
 * 🇪🇨 Ecuador (1956)
 * 🇪🇬 Egypt (1958)
 * 🇸🇻 El Salvador (1981)
 * 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea (1972)
 * 🇪🇷 Eritrea (1993)
 * 🇪🇪 Estonia (1992)
 * 🇪🇹 Ethiopia (1975)
 * 🇫🇯 Fiji (1983)
 * 🇫🇮 Finland (1959)
 * 🇫🇷 France (1952)
 * 🇬🇦 Gabon (1976)
 * 🇬🇲 Gambia (1979)
 * Georgia (1993)
 * 🇩🇪 Germany (1959)
 * 🇬🇭 Ghana (1959)
 * 🇬🇷 Greece (1958)
 * 🇬🇩 Grenada (1998)
 * 🇬🇹 Guatemala (1983)
 * 🇬🇳 Guinea (1975)
 * 🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau (1977)
 * 🇬🇾 Guyana (1980)
 * 🇭🇹 Haiti (1953)
 * 🇭🇳 Honduras (1954)
 * 🇭🇺 Hungary (1970)
 * 🇮🇸 Iceland (1960)
 * 🇮🇳 India (1959)
 * 🇮🇩 Indonesia (1961)
 * 🇮🇷 Iran (1958)
 * 🇮🇶 Iraq (1973)
 * 🇮🇪 Ireland (1951)
 * 🇮🇱 Israel (1952)
 * 🇮🇹 Italy (1957)
 * 🇯🇲 Jamaica (1976)
 * 🇯🇵 Japan (1958)
 * 🇯🇴 Jordan (1973)
 * 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan (1994)
 * 🇰🇪 Kenya (1973)
 * 🇰🇮 Kiribati (2003)
 * 🇰🇼 Kuwait (1960)
 * 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan (2024)
 * 🇱🇻 Latvia (1993)
 * 🇱🇧 Lebanon (1966)
 * 🇱🇷 Liberia (1959)
 * 🇱🇾 Libya (1970)
 * 🇱🇹 Lithuania (1995)
 * 🇱🇺 Luxembourg (1991)
 * 🇲🇬 Madagascar (1961)
 * 🇲🇼 Malawi (1989)
 * 🇲🇾 Malaysia (1971)
 * 🇲🇻 Maldives (1967)
 * 🇲🇹 Malta (1966)
 * 🇲🇭 Marshall Islands (1998)
 * 🇲🇷 Mauritania (1961)
 * 🇲🇺 Mauritius (1978)
 * 🇲🇽 Mexico (1954)
 * 🇲🇨 Monaco (1989)
 * 🇲🇳 Mongolia (1996)
 * 🇲🇪 Montenegro (2006)
 * 🇲🇦 Morocco (1962)
 * 🇲🇿 Mozambique (1979)
 * 🇲🇲 Myanmar (1951)
 * 🇳🇦 Namibia (1994)
 * 🇳🇷 Nauru (2018)
 * 🇳🇵 Nepal (1979)
 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands (1949)
 * 🇳🇿 New Zealand (1960)
 * 🇳🇮 Nicaragua (1982)
 * 🇳🇬 Nigeria (1962)
 * North Macedonia (1993)
 * 🇳🇴 Norway (1958)
 * 🇴🇲 Oman (1974)
 * 🇵🇰 Pakistan (1958)
 * 🇵🇼 Palau (2011)
 * 🇵🇦 Panama (1958)
 * 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea (1976)
 * 🇵🇾 Paraguay (1993)
 * 🇵🇪 Peru (1968)
 * 🇵🇭 Philippines (1964)
 * 🇵🇱 Poland (1960)
 * 🇵🇹 Portugal (1976)
 * 🇶🇦 Qatar (1977)
 * Republic of Korea (1962)
 * Republic of Moldova (2001)
 * 🇷🇴 Romania (1965)
 * Russian Federation (1958)
 * 🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis (2001)
 * 🇱🇨 Saint Lucia (1980)
 * 🇻🇨 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1981)
 * 🇼🇸 Samoa (1996)
 * 🇸🇲 San Marino (2002)
 * São Tomé and Príncipe (1990)
 * 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia (1969)
 * 🇸🇳 Senegal (1960)
 * 🇷🇸 Serbia (2000)
 * 🇸🇨 Seychelles (1978)
 * 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone (1973)
 * 🇸🇬 Singapore (1966)
 * 🇸🇰 Slovakia (1993)
 * 🇸🇮 Slovenia (1993)
 * 🇸🇧 Solomon Islands (1988)
 * 🇸🇴 Somalia (1978)
 * 🇿🇦 South Africa (1995)
 * 🇪🇸 Spain (1962)
 * 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka (1972)
 * 🇸🇩 Sudan (1974)
 * 🇸🇷 Suriname (1976)
 * 🇸🇪 Sweden (1959)
 * 🇨🇭 Switzerland (1955)
 * Syria (1963)
 * 🇹🇿 Tanzania (1974)
 * 🇹🇭 Thailand (1973)
 * Timor-Leste (2005)
 * 🇹🇬 Togo (1983)
 * 🇹🇴 Tonga (2000)
 * 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago (1965)
 * 🇹🇳 Tunisia (1963)
 * 🇹🇷 Turkey (1958)
 * 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan (1993)
 * 🇹🇻 Tuvalu (2004)
 * 🇺🇬 Uganda (2009)
 * 🇺🇦 Ukraine (1994)
 * 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates (1980)
 * 🇬🇧 United Kingdom (1949)
 * United States of America (1950)
 * 🇺🇾 Uruguay (1968)
 * 🇻🇺 Vanuatu (1986)
 * 🇻🇪 Venezuela (1975)
 * 🇻🇳 Viet Nam (1984)
 * 🇾🇪 Yemen (1979)
 * 🇿🇲 Zambia (2014)
 * 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe (2005)

The three associate members of the IMO are the Faroe Islands, Hong Kong and Macau.

In 1961, the territories of Sabah and Sarawak, which had been included through the participation of United Kingdom, became joint associate members. In 1963 they became part of Malaysia.

The most recent members to join were Armenia and Nauru (which became IMO members in January and May 2018, respectively). Botswana, joined the IMO in October 2021. On 27 February 2024, Kyrgyzstan became the 176th Member State of the organization.

Most UN member states that are not members of IMO are landlocked countries. These include Afghanistan, Andorra, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Eswatini, Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Federated States of Micronesia, an island-nation in the Pacific Ocean, is also a non-member. Taiwan is neither a member of the IMO nor of the UN, although it has a major shipping industry.

Legal instruments
IMO is the source of approximately 60 legal instruments that guide the regulatory development of its member states to improve safety at sea, facilitate trade among seafaring states and protect the maritime environment. The most well known is the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), as well as International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). Others include the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC). It also functions as a depository of yet to be ratified treaties, such as the International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea, 1996 (HNS Convention) and Nairobi International Convention of Removal of Wrecks (2007).

IMO regularly enacts regulations, which are broadly enforced by national and local maritime authorities in member countries, such as the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG). The IMO has also enacted a Port state control (PSC) authority, allowing domestic maritime authorities such as coast guards to inspect foreign-flag ships calling at ports of the many port states. Memoranda of Understanding (protocols) were signed by some countries unifying Port State Control procedures among the signatories.

Conventions, Codes and Regulations:
 * MARPOL Convention
 * Marpol Annex I
 * SOLAS Convention
 * IMDG Code
 * ISM Code
 * ISPS Code
 * Polar Code
 * IGF Code
 * IGC Code
 * TDC Code
 * International Code on Intact Stability
 * International Grain Code
 * IMSBC Code
 * STCW Convention
 * International Code of Signals, mandatory for carriage on ships and used for communications between all ships, including merchant vessels and naval vessels
 * International Ballast Water Management Convention (BWM Convention)
 * International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage (CLC Convention)
 * International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR Convention)
 * International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation (OPRC)
 * HNS Convention
 * International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG)
 * International Convention on Load Lines (CLL)
 * International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage (FUND92)
 * Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA Convention)
 * International Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-fouling Systems on Ships (AFS Convention)
 * Athens Convention (PAL)
 * Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks
 * The Casualty Investigation Code - enacted through Resolution MSC.255(84), of 16 May 2008. The full title is Code of the International Standards and Recommended Practices for a Safety Investigation into a maritime casualty or incident.

Current priorities
Recent initiatives at the IMO have included amendments to SOLAS, which among other things, included upgraded fire protection standards on passenger ships, the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seamen(STCW) which establishes basic requirements on training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers and to the Convention on the Prevention of Maritime Pollution (MARPOL 73/78), which required double hulls on all tankers.

The IMO's e-Navigation system has harmonised marine navigation systems with supporting shore services, as available to seamen and shore-side traffic services called. An e-Navigation strategy was ratified in 2005, and an implementation plan was developed through three IMO sub-committees. The plan was completed by 2014 and implemented in November of that year. IMO has also served as a key partner and enabler of US international and interagency efforts to establish maritime domain awareness.

Environmental issues
The IMO has a role in tackling international climate change. The First Intersessional Meeting of IMO's Working Group on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships took place in Oslo, Norway (23–27 June 2008), tasked with developing the technical basis for the reduction mechanisms that may form part of a future IMO regime to control greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, and a draft of the actual reduction mechanisms themselves, for further consideration by IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC). The IMO participated in the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris seeking to establish itself as the "appropriate international body to address greenhouse gas emissions from ships engaged in international trade". Nonetheless, there has been widespread criticism of the IMO's relative inaction since the conclusion of the Paris conference, with the initial data-gathering step of a three-stage process to reduce maritime greenhouse emissions expected to last until 2020. In 2018, the Initial IMO Strategy on the reduction of GHG emissions from ships was adopted. In 2021, The New York Times wrote that the IMO "has repeatedly delayed and watered down climate regulations".

The IMO has also taken action to mitigate the global effects of ballast water and sediment discharge, through the 2004 Ballast Water Management Convention, which entered into force in September 2017.

In December 2023 the IMO adopted a resolution targeting "dark fleet" tankers that form a risk by undertaking illegal and unsafe activities at sea. Primarily working for Iran and Russia to breach international sanctions, the tankers, many of which are elderly and unreliable, often undertake mid ocean transfers in an attempt to evade sanctions. The resolution calls upon flag states to “adhere to measures which lawfully prohibit or regulate” the transfer of cargoes at sea, known as ship-to-ship transfers.

Fishing safety
The IMO Cape Town Agreement is an international International Maritime Organization legal instrument established in 2012, that sets out minimum safety requirements for fishing vessels of 24 metres in length and over or equivalent in gross tons. As of 2022, the Agreement is not yet in force but the IMO is encouraging more member States to ratify the Agreement.

title: International Maritime Organization