Conclusion - Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels - page 146

organisation was able to continue its activities in this area, indicative of the dynamism
and adaptability of IMO to changing circumstances.
It has become agonisingly clear that the efforts of the global community in
combating marine environmental pollution have been only minimally successful in
solving the main problems. The major cause of this failure is States

reluctance in
complying with, and enforcing, globally-agreed standards contained in the interna-
tional conventions.
In developing countries, a lack of domestic legal and institutional frameworks is
not the only cause of weak implementation of international marine pollution
prevention conventions. Apart from lax domestic establishment of legal frame-
works, the inherent weaknesses in international law are also a major cause of
non-compliance with international conventions dealing with the prevention of
vessel-source marine pollution. The United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea (UNCLOS) and the MARPOL 73/78 Convention recognize the interna-
tional law principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR).
However, this novel aspiration has never been implemented by any practical
measure. This has led to widespread non-compliance with vessel-source marine
pollution prevention conventions in developing countries. For implementation of
international marine environmental conventions in developing countries, a
co-ordinated and meaningful initiative is necessary at the global, national and
regional levels.
Global forums like IMO need fundamental reform both in structure and
approach. The international community must take meaningful steps to uphold
globally-recognised environmental norms, including: CBDR; polluter pays, and
precautionary measures in marine environmental regimes. To ensure the global
acceptability of international marine environmental conventions, proper acknowl-
edgement needs to be given to the concerns of the global south when negotiating
and implementing international legal instruments. Moreover, the developed world
must come to the table with meaningful technical and financial assistance for
developing countries to achieve the common goal of marine environmental
protection.
Equally, developing countries should not use the lack of financial assistance as
an excuse for non-compliance with global standards. If there is a firm determina-
tion, at least some of the international conventions may be implemented in full or in
part without any external help. To receive assistance from donor agencies and
international financial institutions, the government of the developing country must
first initiate the proposal.
With all its shortcomings, IMO

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s role in preventing pollution of the marine
environment from vessels has expanded exponentially. IMO has become the most
important institution for marine environmental protection worldwide; a claim
hardly envisaged when it was first established without any explicit mandate for
marine environmental protection. The organisation has not only promoted the
adoption of numerous international marine environmental legal instruments, but
also gradually established well-functioning institutional structures for marine envi-
ronmental protection. It has also established itself as the competent international

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