Courtesy visit to the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization

On the Thursday 1 February 2024, Ann Fenech in her capacity as President of the CMI – Comité Maritime International, paid a courtesy visit to the newly elected Secretary General of the IMO, Mr. Arsenio Dominguez at the IMO headquarters in London.

Also present for this meeting were Dorota Lost-Sieminska Director, Legal Affairs and External Relations of the IMO, and Maria Borg Barthet, partner at CJC and Rapporteur of the CMI working group on Implementation and Ratification of Conventions.

The CMI has been working closely with the IMO since 1968 when the legal committee of IMCO, as it was then called, was formed in the aftermath of the Torrey Canyon pollution incident which led to the drafting by CMI of the 1969 CLC – Convention.

Mr. Dominguez emphasised the importance of supporting seafarers in the present challenging climate of hostilities, war, sanctions and outright unfair treatment of seafarers as well as the need to get to the bottom of unregulated registries and expressed his desire to reach out to the Industry.

The CMI underlined their offer of unreserved co-operation with and in the various projects IMO wished to undertake and embark on and offered their extensive network of maritime lawyers from jurisdictions from all over the world often at the coal face of these problems who are ready and able to assist.

The CMI looks forward to taking the already special relationship with the IMO from strength to strength and we wish Mr. Dominguez great success in his new role.