"Seafarers: at the core of shipping's future".

This is the theme of the 2021 World Maritime Day, an international event Cameroon is hosting for the fourth time. Sitting in for the Minister of Transport (MINT), the Secretary General of the aforementioned ministry, Mveimani Sombo Amba, presided over the opening ceremony of the training workshop on the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in West and Central Africa, generally referred to as the Abuja MoU, and the endorsement of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006).

Both international regulatory documents for the maritime sector have well-defined missions, and play very important roles in the visibility of the sector. 

The Abuja MoU was adopted in Abuja on 22 October 1999,, Nigeria, and ratified by Cameroon through Presidential Decree No. 2020/408 of 4 August 2020. This will allow for the implementation of an effective system of Port State Control for the inspection of foreign ships to ensure bias-free compliance with standards set out in relevant instruments defined by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). Some of these instruments include: the International Convention on Load Lines; the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea; the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships; the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch keeping for Seafarers; the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea; the International Convention on Tonnage Measurement of Ships; and the International Convention on Maritime Labour, just to name a few.

The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006), as amended, was adopted at the 94^th  (Maritime) Session of the International Labour Conference held in 2006. It was later amended and approved by the Labour Conference at its 103^rd Session in 2014 and by the International Labour Conference at its 105^th Session in 2016. It is worth noting that, pending its ratification, the Abuja MoU incorporates all the standards contained in existing international maritime labour conventions and recommendations as well as the fundamental principles set out in other international labour conventions, underlining the right of seafarers to a safe and secure work environment with up-to-date safety standards; the right of seafarers to decent working and living conditions on board ships, and the right to health protection and medical care.

This two-day workshop is amongst the activities to mark celebrations of the 2021 edition of the World Maritime Day. The theme chosen by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) for this year's celebrations is: "Seafarers: at the core of shipping's future". The same theme was adopted by the Ministry of Transport as it captures the intent of provisions of the Abuja MoU and the MLC, 2006, which both provide a better legal framework for our inspectors in their port State control missions.