Ukrainian lawyers joined the signing of the Gulf of Guinea Declaration

Ukrainian law firm Black Sea Law Company has joined the signing of the Gulf of Guinea Declaration on Suppression of Piracy.

More than 400 parties have signed the declaration, including shipowners, charterers and shipping associations.

The signatories call on all concerned parties to join the signing of the Declaration – maritime organizations, importers and exporters, oil and mining companies, operators, labor bodies and non-governmental organizations.

The document provides for measures aimed at suppression of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea region, such as:

• substantial anti-piracy law enforcement support (as required by international law, including international treaties such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea) by extraregional naval forces that can respond to incidents in addition to anti-piracy operations in coastal states ;
• strengthening regional capacities, with priority given to those coastal states that demonstrate the will to actively participate in maritime law enforcement;
• encouraging extraregional naval forces to actively work together with each other, as well as law enforcement agencies and agencies of the coastal states of the Gulf of Guinea to suppress the pirate threat;
• support the deployment of law enforcement officers from coastal states in the region on ships of extraregional naval forces to build capacity and assist in the arrest and prosecution of pirates;
• facilitating the implementation of effective shipborne protective measures in the region, including through the guidance of the BMP West Africa and other on-board active and passive protective measures;
• raising awareness of the situation in the field (for example, using radars on offshore platforms) and sharing relevant information between law enforcement and anti-piracy agencies;
• providing prisons for arrested pirates (in the ideal case in the region) and encouraging the coastal states of the Gulf of Guinea to actively prosecute, etc.

The goal of the Declaration is to reduce the number of pirate attacks in the region by at least 80% by the end of 2023, as well as the absence of cases of kidnapping of seafarers within a year before the set deadline.