Editing Search and rescue (section)

==2.2 International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR)==

UNCLOS has been described as a “quasi-constitution for the oceans”. Three (or maybe four) further conventions set out the details of search and rescue obligations.
 
The first of these is the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR), which was adopted by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in 1979 and came into force in 1985. The International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue aims to enhance the effectiveness of search and rescue operations at sea by establishing a framework for coordination, cooperation, and the provision of assistance to persons in distress. It aims to create an international system for coordinating rescue operations that guarantees their efficiency and safety. States parties are thus invited to conclude SAR agreements with neighbouring states to regulate and coordinate SAR operations and services in the agreed maritime zone. Such agreements technically and operationally implement the obligation set out in Article 98 (2) of the UNCLOS, which provides that, where needed, neighbouring states shall cooperate through regional agreements to promote and maintain adequate and effective SAR services.

Following an amendment taking effect in 2004 for all parties except Malta, which formally objected, the obligation to provide assistance to a person at distress at sea expressly applies “regardless of the nationality or status of such a person or the circumstances in which that person is found” (para 2.1.10). Once a person has been rescued, they must be delivered to a “place of safety” (para 1.3.2 and 3.1.9).  In particular, the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) adopted two resolutions that amended SAR Convention (and SOLAS Convention), and which entered into force 1 July 2006. Consequently, Article 3 (1) (9) of the SAR Convention now provides:

‘Parties shall co-ordinate and co-operate to ensure that masters of ships providing assistance by embarking persons in distress at sea are released from their obligations with minimum further deviation from the ships’ intended voyage (…). The Party responsible for the search and rescue region in which such assistance is rendered shall exercise primary responsibilityfor ensuring such co-ordination and co-operation occurs, so that survivors assisted are disembarked from the assisting ship and delivered to a place of safety (…). In these cases, the relevant Parties shall arrange for such disembarkation to be effective as soon as reasonably practicable’.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Colin |first1=Yeo |title=Briefing: the duty of refugee sea rescue in international law |url=https://freemovement.org.uk/refugee-sea-rescue-in-international-law-and-uk-law/ |website=freemovement.org |date=5 October 2021 |access-date=20 October 2023}}</ref>

According to the MSC Guidelines, a ‘place of safety’ means a location where the rescue operations can be considered as completed. In accordance with Principle 6.14 of the Guidelines, the rescue unit can be the place of safety, but only provisionally. In fact, the text insists on the role that the flag state and the coastal state should play in substituting for the master of the rescuing vessel (Principle 6.13).
Moreover, pursuant to the same guidelines, the state in whose SAR zone the operation took place has the duty to provide or, at least, to secure a place of safety for the rescued persons (Principle 2.5). This Principle simply requires that the coastal state carries out the SAR operations and brings them effectively to an end, i.e., not leaving the rescued persons (whatever their status) at sea. Considering that the MSC Guidelines are not binding, Principle 2.5 suggests that the coastal state has a ‘residual obligation’ to allow disembarkation on its own territory when it has not been possible to do so safely anywhere else.[16] This has been clarified by the IMO Facilitation Committee (FAL), which adopted the ‘Principles relating to administrative procedures for disembarking persons rescued at sea’.

Another issue concerns the identification of the beneficiary of the obligation: is the duty to render assistance a purely inter-state obligation or does it entail a right to be rescued for people in distress at sea? The law of the sea is a field of international law where individuals or more generally private actors have little involvement. The main aim of the law of the sea consists of allocating obligations and rights in different maritime zones to states. However, the multiplication of activities at sea and the increased human presence led to the question of the protection of the human element, in particular of the application of human rights at sea. Many scholars have already discussed the application of the relevant human rights treaties at sea, pointing out that the law of the sea, specifically the LOSC, pursues some community interests, among which the protection of human rights. Building on this scholarship, the duty to render assistance can be considered to be the operational obligation deriving from the application of the human right to life at sea.