At the 9th Plenary Session of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia held on 14 July 2011 in New York, the ASF Secretary General was honoured to have the opportunity to share our grave concerns over the current situation.

The ASF informed the Contact Group about our disappointment at the lack of concrete action and plan by the UN or any country in making headway to eradicate this threat.

While acknowledging the need for capacity building efforts to solve the root cause of the problem which is on land, the ASF also voiced our considered opinion that governments and flag states should deploy effective counter-piracy mechanisms to mitigate the problem. This could be in a form of an UN Peacekeeping Counter Piracy Task Force that would give armed escort, protection and much needed confidence to the hundreds of ships and seafarers plying those high risk areas.

On 28 June 2010, the ASF addressed a letter to both Mr E Mitropoulos, Secretary General of IMO, and Mr Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of UN voicing the grave concerns about the situation of piracy and ship hijacks is escalating and spreading beyond the Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin into the vast Indian Ocean.

In the letter, the ASF strongly urged the members of UN and IMO to do all they can in their power to counter the state of lawlessness restoring safety of Maritime Navigation in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. A list of possible actions essential for formulating a lasting solution was outlined for the consideration of UN and IMO.

On 23 June 2010, the ASF joined the coalition of organisations ranging from trade unions to shipowners’ associations and insurers to back a global e-petition aimed at pressuring governments to commit concrete actions to end maritime piracy that is placing seafarers’ lives at risk and threatening the international shipping and the world trade.

The e-petition campaign amassed almost one million signatures which were delivered to the Mr E Mitroupoulos, Secretary General of International Maritime Organisation (IMO), in London on the World Maritime Day, 23 September 2010.

This campaign prompted a response from the United Nations (UN) and Mr Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of UN, pledging that UN would spare no efforts in tackling piracy.