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Hong Kong Convention and EU Ship Recycling Regulation: Can they change bad industrial practices soon?

Thomas Ormond

elni Review 2012, Issue 2,  pp. 54-58. https://doi.org/10.46850/elni.2012.009

In May 2009, 63 countries adopted the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. The agreement was meant to end the anarchy of highly dangerous and extremely polluting ship dismantling practices which are still prevalent on the scrapyard beaches of Southern Asia. However, none of the conference participants has so far ratified the Convention and its entering into force looks far off. In March 2012, the European Commission thus presented a proposal for an EU Ship Recycling Regulation in order to speed up the ratification process as well as to introduce additional measures for European ships. The following article looks at the two legal instruments and their chances of success.

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References

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