Ten Tips for the IMO

Transparency International has proposed a number of changes that it says could make the IMO better able to serve the interests of the world's citizens on issues such as greenhouse gas emissions. Here are 10 of its recommendations:

• consider the introduction of requirements for member state representatives to hold an official public mandate as members of their domestic civil service and to demonstrate an absence of conflicts of interest in their role as national delegates, including through disclosure of assets

• engage with other relevant U.N. bodies (including the U.N. Division for Oceans and the Law of the Sea) with a view to establishing a meaningful link between ships and their country of registry

• consider modifying the ratification process for IMO conventions so that the importance of tonnage as a measure of a state’s influence is reduced

• consider introducing a quota system for consultative members to ensure a more balanced representation among different interest groups

• publish, in full, a copy of IMO financial regulations including the funding formula of the IMO’s finance mechanism

• publish substantive information about the council and secretariat’s activities, including information on how national representatives are elected to the council and how chairs and vice chairs are nominated and elected to their positions on committees, working groups or correspondence groups

• consider allowing local organizations to become consultative members

• remove restrictions on consultative members' ability to openly criticize the IMO

• develop a code of conduct for council members, member state delegates and consultative members in order to regulate their conduct while operating under the auspices of the IMO

• remove the restriction on journalists which currently forbids them from naming speakers in open plenary without consent.