"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 Certification of
Able Seamen (No. 74), 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 Certification of
Able Seamen
(ILO No. 74)
(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 certification of able
seamen, 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 Certification of Able
Seamen Convention, 1946:
Article 1
No person shall be
engaged on any vessel as an able seaman unless he is a person who by national
laws or regulations is deemed to be competent to perform any duty which may be
required of a member of the crew serving in the deck department (other than an
officer or leading or specialist rating) and unless he holds a certificate of
qualification as an able seaman granted in accordance with the provisions of
the following articles.
Article 2
1. The competent
authority shall make arrangements for the holding of examinations and for the
granting of certificates of qualification.
2. No person shall
be granted a certificate of qualification unless--
(a) he has reached
a minimum age to be prescribed by the competent authority;
(b) he has served
at sea in the deck department for a minimum period to be prescribed by the
competent authority; and
(c) he has passed
an examination of proficiency to be prescribed by the competent authority.
3. The prescribed
minimum age shall not be less than eighteen years.
4. The prescribed
minimum period of service at sea shall not be less than thirty-six months:
Provided that the competent authority may--
(a) permit persons
with a period of actual service at sea of not less than twenty-four months who
have successfully passed through a course of training in an approved training
school to reckon the time spent in such training, or part thereof, as sea
service; and
(b) permit persons
trained in approved sea-going training ships who have served eighteen months in
such ships to be certificated as able seamen upon leaving in good standing.
5. The prescribed
examination shall provide a practical test of the candidate's knowledge of
seamanship and of his ability to carry out effectively all the duties that may
be required of an able seaman, including those of a lifeboatman; it shall be
such as to qualify a successful candidate to hold the special lifeboatman's
certificate provided for in Article 22 of the International Convention for the
Safety of Life at Sea, 1929, or in the corresponding provision of any
subsequent Convention revising or replacing that Convention for the time being
in force for the territory concerned.
Article 3
A certificate of
qualification may be granted to any person who, at the time of the entry into
force of this Convention for the territory concerned, is performing the full
duties of an able seaman or leading deck rating or has performed such duties.
Article 4
The competent
authority may provide for the recognition of certificates of qualification
issued in other territories.
Article 5
The formal
ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated to the Director-General
of the International Labour Office for registration.
Article 6
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 twelve months after the date on which the ratifications of two Members
have been registered with the Director-General.
3. Thereafter, this
Convention shall come into force for any Member twelve months after the date on
which its ratifications has been registered.
Article 7
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 8
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 second ratification
communicated to him, the Director-General shall draw the attention of the
Members of the Organisation to the date upon which the Convention will come
into force.
Article 9
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 10
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 11
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 7 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 12
The English and
French versions of the text of this Convention are equally authoritative.