"In accordance with the Joint
Declaration of the Government of the People's Republic of China and the
Government of the Republic of Portugal on the Question of Macao (hereinafter
referred to as the Joint Declaration), the Government of the People's Republic
of China will resume the exercise of sovereignty over Macao with effect from 20
December 1999. Macao will, from that date, become a Special Administrative
Region of the People's Republic of China and will enjoy a high degree of autonomy,
except in foreign and defence affairs which are the responsibilities of the
Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China.
It is provided both in section VIII of
Elaboration by the Government of the People's Republic of China of its Basic
Policies Regarding Macao, which is Annex I to the Joint Declaration, and
Article 138 of the Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the
People's Republic of China, which was adopted on 31 March 1993 by the National
People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, that international
agreements to which the People's Republic of China is not yet a party but which
are implemented in Macao may continue to be implemented in the Macao Special
Administrative Region.
In accordance with the above provisions, I
am instructed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of
China to inform Your Excellency of the following:
Convention concerning the Medical
Examination of Seafarers (No. 73), adopted at Seattle on 29 June 1946 (hereinafter
referred to as the "Convention"), which applies to Macao at present,
will continue to apply to the Macao Special Administrative Region with effect
from 20 December 1999.
Within the above ambit, the Government of
the People's Republic of China will assume the responsibility for the
international rights and obligations that place on a Party to the Convention."
Convention
concerning the Medical Examination of Seafarers
(ILO No. 73)
(Adopted at Seattle on 29
June 1946)
The General
Conference of the International Labour Organisation,
Having been
convened at Seattle by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office,
and having met in its Twenty-eighth Session on 6 June 1946, and
Having decided upon
the adoption of certain proposals with regard to the medical examination of
seafarers, which is included in the fifth item on the agenda of the Session,
and
Having determined
that these proposals shall take the form of an international Convention,
adopts this
twenty-ninth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and forty-six
the following Convention, which may be cited as the Medical Examination
(Seafarers) Convention, 1946:
Article 1
1. This Convention
applies to every sea-going vessel, whether publicly or privately owned, which
is engaged in the transport of cargo or passengers for the purpose of trade and
is registered in a territory for which this Convention is in force.
2. National laws or
regulations shall determine when vessels are to be regarded as sea-going.
3. This Convention
does not apply to--
(a) vessels of less
than 200 tons gross register tonnage;
(b) wooden vessels
of primitive build such as dhows and junks;
(c) fishing
vessels;
(d) estuarial
craft.
Article 2
Without prejudice
to the steps which should be taken to ensure that the persons mentioned below
are in good health and not likely to endanger the health of other persons on
board, this Convention applies to every person who is engaged in any capacity
on board a vessel except--
(a) a pilot (not a
member of the crew);
(b) persons
employed on board by an employer other than the shipowner, except radio
officers or operators in the service of a wireless telegraphy company;
(c) travelling
dockers (longshoremen) not members of the crew;
(d) persons
employed in ports who are not ordinarily employed at sea.
Article 3
1. No person to
whom this Convention applies shall be engaged for employment in a vessel to
which this Convention applies unless he produces a certificate attesting to his
fitness for the work for which he is to be employed at sea signed by a medical
practitioner or, in the case of a certificate solely concerning his sight, by a
person authorised by the competent authority to issue such a certificate.
2. Provided that,
for a period of two years from the date of the entry into force of this
Convention for the territory concerned, a person may be so engaged if he
produces evidence that he has been employed in a sea-going vessel to which this
Convention applies for a substantial period during the previous two years.
Article 4
1. The competent
authority shall, after consultation with the shipowners' and seafarers'
organisations concerned, prescribe the nature of the medical examination to be
made and the particulars to be included in the medical certificate.
2. When prescribing
the nature of the examination, due regard shall be had to the age of the person
to be examined and the nature of the duties to be performed.
3. In particular,
the medical certificate shall attest--
(a) that the
hearing and sight of the person and, in the case of a person to be employed in
the deck department (except for certain specialist personnel, whose fitness for
the work which they are to perform is not liable to be affected by defective
colour vision), his colour vision, are all satisfactory; and
(b) that he is not
suffering from any disease likely to be aggravated by, or to render him unfit
for, service at sea or likely to endanger the health of other persons on board.
Article 5
1. The medical
certificate shall remain in force for a period not exceeding two years from the
date on which it was granted.
2. In so far as a
medical certificate relates to colour vision it shall remain in force for a
period not exceeding six years from the date on which it was granted.
3. If the period of
validity of a certificate expires in the course of a voyage the certificate
shall continue in force until the end of that voyage.
Article 6
1. In urgent cases
the competent authority may allow a person to be employed for a single voyage
without having satisfied the requirements of the preceding articles.
2. In such cases
the terms and conditions of employment shall be the same as those of seafarers
in the same category holding a medical certificate.
3. Employment in
virtue of this Article shall not be deemed on any subsequent occasion to be
previous employment for the purpose of Article 3.
Article 7
The competent
authority may provide for the acceptance in substitution for a medical
certificate of evidence in a prescribed form that the required certificate has
been given.
Article 8
Arrangements shall
be made to enable a person who, after examination, has been refused a
certificate to apply for a further examination by a medical referee or referees
who shall be independent of any shipowner or of any organisation of shipowners
or seafarers.
Article 9
Any of the
functions of the competent authority under this Convention may, after
consultation with the organisations of shipowners and seafarers, be discharged
by delegating the work, or part of it, to an organisation or authority
exercising similar functions in respect of seafarers generally.
Article 10
The formal
ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated to the Director-General
of the International Labour Office for registration.
Article 11
1. This Convention
shall be binding only upon those Members of the International Labour
Organisation whose ratifications have been registered with the
Director-General.
2. It shall come
into force six months after the date on which there have been registered
ratifications by seven of the following countries: United States of America,
Argentine Republic, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark,
Finland, France, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Greece,
India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey
and Yugoslavia, including at least four countries each of which has at least
one million gross register tons of shipping. This provision is included for the
purpose of facilitating and encouraging early ratification of the Convention by
Member States.
3. Thereafter, this
Convention shall come into force for any Member six months after the date on
which its ratification has been registered.
Article 12
1. A Member which
has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the expiration of ten years
from the date on which the Convention first comes into force, by an act
communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for
registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until one year after the
date on which it is registered.
2. Each Member
which has ratified this Convention and which does not, within the year
following the expiration of the period of ten years mentioned in the preceding
paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided for in this Article,
will be bound for another period of ten years and, thereafter, may denounce
this Convention at the expiration of each period of ten years under the terms
provided for in this Article.
Article 13
1. The
Director-General of the International Labour Office shall notify all Members of
the International Labour Organisation of the registration of all ratifications
and denunciations communicated to him by the Members of the Organisation.
2. When notifying the
Members of the Organisation of the registration of the last of the
ratifications required to bring the Convention into force, Director-General
shall draw the attention of the Members of the Organisation to the date upon
which the Convention will come into force.
Article 14
The
Director-General of the International Labour Office shall communicate to the
Secretary-General of the United Nations for registration in accordance with
Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations full particulars of all ratifications
and acts of denunciation registered by him in accordance with the provisions of
the preceding articles.
Article 15
At such times as it
may consider necessary the Governing Body of the International Labour Office
shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this
Convention and shall examine the desirability of placing on the agenda of the
Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.
Article 16
1. Should the
Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention in whole or in part,
then, unless the new Convention otherwise provides:
a) the ratification
by a Member of the new revising Convention shall ipso jure involve the
immediate denunciation of this Convention, notwithstanding the provisions of
Article 12 above, if and when the new revising Convention shall have come into
force;
b) as from the date
when the new revising Convention comes into force this Convention shall cease
to be open to ratification by the Members.
2. This Convention
shall in any case remain in force in its actual form and content for those
Members which have ratified it but have not ratified the revising Convention.
Article 17
The English and
French versions of the text of this Convention are equally authoritative.