The Ways Of Combating Piracy In International Sea

Ocean and sea play a vital role as it is the important trade route especially in the globalised economy. However, maritime security, over the last decades, has been underestimated as well as been seen as “soft belly” of many states. Piracy mostly stopped in 1860s following the Declaration of Paris, then returned to a large scale in the early 1990 until now. Modern piracy involves in ship hijacking, kidnapping for ransom, drug trafficking, etc. This poses a serious threat to international security as well as global economy and apparently needs the coordinations of all member states involved and international community to solve. Various approaches have been launched to deal with piracy on international scale. According to the United Nations Convention Law of Sea (1982), piracy consists of “any illegal acts of violence of detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft”. In 2000, Resolution 54/31 adopted by the General Assembly called upon member states to continue their copperation with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and implement its guidelines on preventing and investigating piracy and armed robbery.

Regional committee also contributed a lot in the effort to combat piracy such as NATO launching Operation Ocean Shield (2009). Another example is the Combined Task Force 151 operated in conjunction with EU’s Operation Atalanta and NATO’s Operation Ocean Shield, aiming to disrupt piracy and armed robbery at sea to presever global maritime commerce and secure freedom of navigation. The Contact group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) was established in response to UNSC resolution 1851 (later replaced with UNSC 1918 (2010)) with following outastanding accomplishments: facilitate the coordination of unprecedented international naval to protect transitting vessels; partner with shipping industry to improve Best Management Practice and strengthen capacity of Somalia as well as contribute to UN fund. Starting around 1980s, Venezuela is favourite destination for Caribbean pirates. In Venezuela, the ongoing economic crisis resulted from falling oil prices is considered to fuel Piracy Caribbean Coast which hit the once-thriving fishing industry in Sucre leading to the fact that fisherman are being pushed into illicit activities. People cannot make living anymore so they use boats for smuggling gas, drug and piracy.

Venezuelan teenagers have tendency to become pirates as it brings higher pay rates compared to alternative jobs. Pirates target at fisherman, robbing netted fish or boat’s motors as they are valuable items for drug traffickers. Acts of piracy against cargo vessels on Caribbean coast have been reported for a number of years now, and Sucre's waters were already considered highly risky as far back as 2010, according to a report by a Venezuelan non-governmental organization working on maritime security. The Venezuelan government, albeit facing such tremendous difficulties, have tried the best to assuage the current situation. In 1975, Venezuela joined International Maritime Organization (IMO) which is the United Nations’ specialized agency for safety and shipping security and the prevention of maritime pollution by ships. In 2008, Venezuelan Navy and Coast Guard stepped up their patrols to combat acts of piracy. As early as 2001, National Organization of Rescue and Maritime Safety - the non-governmental national organization for search and rescue and maritime safety in the aquatic spaces of Venezuela, advised boasters to avoid the coastal area east of yatch-service hub of Puerto la Cruz. Much to the effort of Venezuelan authorities and international bodies, it still cannot help the piracy rate go down but keep increasing sharply. The core problem of piracy should be addressed more intensively and more measures should be implemented as the piracy rate is increasing dramatically, deteriorating the present situation.

Possible solutions to this issue should include, but not limited to: encouraging the coordination between international community and piracy-affected nations by continuing naval security programs in areas in which is being determined as piracy-dense, launched by regional committees which proved to be effective in wiping out pirates; calling upon nations to collaborate with each others in the field of economic opportunities to create more jobs along with establishing vocational training programs to prevent people from committing piracy; providing humanitarian aids for piracy-affected areas; urging member states to foster strict law enforcement on piracy and encouraging prosecution of pirates; educating ship owners on the importance of adequate on-board security; urging the UN and Member States to adjust the UNCLOS to adapt radical changes regarding to international law area.