International Cooperation to Address Challenges Faced by Seafarers as a Result of the Covid-19 Pandemic to Support Global Supply Chains

Calls upon the United Nations system, under the leadership of the Secretary-General, to work with all relevant actors in order to mobilize a coordinated global response to the pandemic and its adverse social, economic and financial impact on all societies;

Urges Member States to designate seafarers and other marine personnel as key workers;

Encourages Governments and relevant stakeholders to implement the protocols to ensure safe ship crew changes and travel during the COVID-19 pandemic as approved by the International Maritime Organization Maritime Safety Committee at its 102nd session, allowing stranded seafarers to be repatriated and others to join ships, taking into account the essential preventive measures taken by port States against COVID-19;

Calls upon Governments to promptly implement relevant measures designed to facilitate maritime crew changes, including by enabling embarkment and disembarkment and expediting travel and repatriation efforts as well as ensuring access to medical care;

Calls upon international organizations and other relevant stakeholders, including relevant workers and employers organizations, to support Governments, upon their request, in the design and implementation of their responses and policies aimed at ensuring the integrity and increasing the resilience of global supply chains, decent working and living conditions and human rights of seafarers;

Requests the Secretary-General, in collaboration with the International Maritime Organization, the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, as well as other relevant entities of the United Nations system, to inform the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session through the International Maritime Organization report on the crew changes situation during the COVID-19 pandemic based on the work of the Seafarer Crisis Action Team and through a dedicated section of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Review of Maritime Transport.