1) The FAL Convention aims to facilitate international maritime traffic by preventing unnecessary delays and securing uniformity in formalities and procedures between governments. 2) Traditionally, ships visiting multiple countries during a voyage had to fill out numerous, often duplicative forms requiring the same information but presented differently. 3) The Convention contains standards and recommended practices for formalities, documentation, and procedures related to ships, crews, passengers, baggage, cargo, and mail arriving at and departing from countries.

1. Asst.Prof. Dr.Ender Asyalı 1
FAL CONVENTION

2. 2
Convention on Facilitation of
International Maritime Traffic, 1965
Adoption: 9 April 1965
Entry into force: 5 March 1967

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INTRODUCTION

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Traditionally, large numbers of documents
are required by
----customs,
----immigration,
---- health and
---- other public authorities pertaining to
----a ship,
----its crew and passengers,
----baggage,
---cargo and
----mail.

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This is partly because of the international
nature of shipping:
countries developed customs, immigration and
other standards independently of each other and
a ship visiting several countries during the
course of a voyage could expect to be presented
with numerous forms to fill in, often asking for
exactly the same information but in a slightly
different way.

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By the early 1960s the maritime nations had
decided that the situation could not be
allowed to deteriorate further. International
action was called for and to achieve it
Governments turned to IMO, which had
held its first meeting in 1959.

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FAL convention - objectives
The Convention's main objectives are:
1-to prevent unnecessary delays in maritime
traffic,
2-to aid co-operation between Governments, and
3-to secure the highest practicable degree of
uniformity in formalities and other procedures.

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Standards and recommended
practices
In its Annex, the Convention contains
"Standards" and "Recommended Practices"
on formalities, documentary requirements and
procedures which should be applied on arrival,
stay and departure to the ship itself, and to its
crew, passengers, baggage and cargo.

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Standards: internationally-agreed measures
which are "necessary and practicable in order
to facilitate international maritime traffic"
recommended practices as measures the
application of which is "desirable".

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The Convention provides that any
Contracting Government which finds it
impracticable to comply with any
international standard, or deems it
necessary to adopt differing regulations,
must inform the Secretary-General of IMO
of the "differences" between its own
practices and the standards in question. The
same procedure applies to new or amended
standards.

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Cargo. Any goods, wares, merchandise, and
articles of every kind whatsoever carried
on a ship, other than mail, ship's stores,
ship's spare parts, ship's equipment, crew's
effects and passengers' accompanied
baggage.
Crew's effects. Clothing, items in everyday
use and any other articles, which may
include currency, belonging to the crew
and carried on the ship.
Definitions

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Crew member. Any person actually
employed for duties on board during a
voyage in the working or service of a ship
and included in the crew list.

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Standard. Public authorities shall not
require for their retention, on arrival or
departure of ships to which the Convention
applies, any documents other than those
covered by the present section.

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The documents in question are:
- General Declaration
- Cargo Declaration
- Ship's Stores Declaration
- Crew's Effects Declaration
- Crew List
- Passenger List
- The document required under the
Universal Postal Convention for mail
- Maritime Declaration of Health.

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FAL Certificates
All ships are required to carry certificates that
establish their seaworthiness, type of ship,
competency of seafarers and so on.
These certificates are provided by the flag State
of the ship and may be inspected by port State
control officers.
Certificates to be carried on board ships are
listed in FAL/Circ.90/MEPC/Circ.368
/MSC/Circ.946.
They include (some dependent on type of ship):

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International Tonnage Certificate;
International Load Line Certificate;
Intact stability booklet; Damage
control booklets;
Minimum safe manning document;
Certificates for masters, officers or
ratings;
International Oil Pollution
Prevention Certificate;

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Shipboard Oil Pollution
Emergency Plan;
Garbage Management Plan;
Garbage Record Book;
Cargo Securing Manual;
Document of Compliance and
Safety Management Certificate
(ISM Code).

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IMO is promoting the global
use of electronic data
interchange (EDI) to relay
these forms between port and
ship.

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IMO
FAL FORM I
IMO GENERAL DECLARATION

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IMO
FAL FORM III
SHIP’S STORE DECLARATION

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IMO
FAL FORM IV
IMO CREW EFFECT DECLARATION

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IMO
FAL FORM V
IMO CREW LIST

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IMO
FAL FORM VI
IMO PASSENGER LIST