Manual Oil Pollution at Sea – Part 2 
Effective Prosecution of Offenders -
Guidelines on International Co-operation

At the third International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea in the Hague in 1990, the Ministers and EC Commissioner decided that common actions should be taken at national and international level in order to improve the effectiveness of prosecution for violations of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships - MARPOL 73/78 regulations - and the associated collection of evidence. Such actions require consultation with the authorities of the North Sea states responsible for prosecution.

As a first step, Ministers invited the Contracting Parties to the Bonn Agreement to produce a Manual explaining the systems of airborne surveillance and other methods used for identifying offenders and for obtaining evidence. The Manual Oil Pollution At Sea - Securing Evidence on Discharges from Ships was published in 1993 by the Bonn Agreement; and was disseminated worldwide through the International Maritime Organization (IMO, a United Nations body). The Manual is addressed to authorities in charge of detecting violations, police officers, prosecutors, defence counsellors and courts in order to explain how evidence can be gathered and to indicate the reliability of the methods used. It is intended to facilitate the common understanding of the methods used for those who are not familiar with the technicalities.

Taking into account the progress made in the establishment of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), the Ministers at the Fourth International Conference for the Protection of the North Sea in Esbjerg 1993 agreed as a second step to develop common procedures with the aim of facilitating, in a harmonised way, the rendering of assistance and the admissibility of different forms of evidence and co-operation between the North Sea states. To achieve this facilitation of the effective prosecution of offenders of discharge regulations at sea, the Contracting Parties to the Bonn Agreement agreed to develop guidelines for personnel engaged in securing or gathering evidence as a complement to the above mentioned Manual. This improvement should aim at both the collection of sufficient evidence of alleged contraventions and the international exchange thereof thus enabling effective prosecution of all violations of the MARPOL 73/78 provisions.

Experts have worked within the Bonn Agreement, at first within a working group which met in London and Brussels in 1996, followed by a seminar in Brest in 1997 which analysed the situation in its different aspects and suggested proposals for the future (see Appendix). The first draft manual was produced by a workshop in Stockholm in December 1998. The draft has been reviewed by the working group of the Bonn Agreement (OTSOPA). The manual was adopted by the 1999 meeting of Contracting Parties in Brest. The work has partly been financially supported by the European Community.

All information in this manual reflects the situation in May 1999. Any periodic updates will be available on the Bonn Agreement website.

It was agreed by the Bonn Agreement Contracting Parties that the guidelines should contain the following issues:

1.    The current practice of Contracting Parties with regard to:

• the collection of evidence of illegal discharges by ships,

• the legal requirements for evidence to be presented for an administrative and/or judicial pursuit of violations, and

• the results of relevant prosecution cases.

2.     The means to facilitate enforcement and prosecution of offenders of MARPOL 73/78 and to enhance the effectiveness of such actions, in particular with regard to:

• the improvements in the communication and co-operation between the different competent authorities (administrative and judicial), and

• the means to ensure that the body of evidence presented will meet the requirements for a successful prosecution of offenders.

This Manual is intended to be used by the competent authorities involved in the enforcement of discharge regulations and also by prosecutors, magistrates and specialised lawyers.

Back to top