UNCLOS

Electronic Water

United Nations Conventions on the Law Of the Sea

Defining Piracy

It is critical to note that Piracy as defined by Article 101 of United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) occur “on the high seas” and “outside the jurisdiction of any State”

Article 101 of the United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982, defines Piracy as any of the following acts:

(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:

(i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;

(ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;

(b) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;

Piracy or Armed Robbery?

Piracy happens on the high seas or international waters outside the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of a coastal state.

Pirates take advantage of the fact that the high seas lack specific national jurisdiction, except for that of the flag states of the attacked ship under which flag they fly,

Such flag states may not have the required control measures to prevent, to combat and hence limit piracy.

Piracy becomes armed robbery if the attack happens in territorial waters. Armed robbery is the responsibility of the State in whose waters it takes place.

Defining Armed Robbery at Sea

IMO Resolution A.1025 (26) “Code of Practice for the Investigation of Crimes of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships” defines Armed Robbery as:

1: Any illegal act of violence or detention or any act of depredation, or threat thereof, other than an act of piracy, committed for private ends and directed against a ship or against persons or property on board such a ship, within a State’s internal waters, archipelagic waters and territorial sea;

2: Any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described above.

Responsibility of Reporting on Piracy

The responsibility of reporting on piracy is derived from the responsibility to forewarn as per Article 24 (2) of UNCLOS and reads:

• The coastal State shall give appropriate publicity to any danger to navigation within its territorial sea, of which it has knowledge.

• In other words, coastal states must report on the propensity of piracy attacks, as it poses danger to the navigation of other vessels, if they are aware of such dangers.

To be aware of such dangers, coastal states need to be informed of it and they only become informed of it by the information on piracy obtained, made available and distributed. This is linked to Article 25 (1) of the same convention, which reads:

• The coastal State may take the necessary steps in its territorial sea to prevent passage which is not innocent.

• This clause provides coastal states with the means to ensure that piracy on the high seas may be detected and patrolled in its territorial seas as pirates are mobile and may move to and fro the high seas and territorial waters at will.