International environment

Maritime rules and regulations

The economic activities of each State are governed by specific regulations which rule the relationship among parties and facilitate the development of such relationships. Regarding waterborne transportation, it is also necessary to consider safety of navigation, prevention of pollution from ships, and diverse technical and legal factors of the sector.

The evolution of navigation made the development of international instruments necessary in order to facilitate maritime transportation and increase safety, thus protecting life and property from environmental risks.

These two aspects gave rise to the rules and regulations which govern navigation. The PNA -as far as our country is concerned- is responsible for maritime law enforcement.

Prefectura submits regulations arising out from laws and international conventions to the Executive for their adoption, promotes regulation improvements and amendments, and enacts other provisions and ordinances that constitute the so-called Administrative Navigation Rules or Maritime Regulations.

There are many publications of Prefectura that are useful to the maritime sector, the naval industry, seafarers, and associated entities and agencies. Many are closely related to conventions and recommendations of the International Maritime Organization.

Among these publications, it is worth mentioning the "REGINAVE" (Maritime, River and Lake Navigation Regulations), a summary of provisions regarding vessels, navigation and seafarers; the "Ordinances" issued by the Commandant when acting in his capacity as Safety of Navigation Police; the "Merchant Marine’s Information Bulletin" and the "International Maritime Information Bulletin", both designed to publish important news as well as the latest domestic and international regulations.

Prefectura at the International Level

The responsibilities assigned by law to Prefectura require close coordination with the international organizations and foreign institutions that fulfill functions similar to those of Prefectura.

Such responsibilities result from a shared concern about contributing to the safety of human life at sea, preserving the marine environment and satisfying, through regulations set forth at the international level, these issues and all the associated technical and legal matters.

The main forum for performing this task is the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency specialized in maritime affairs.

At the regional level, after the establishment of the Operative Network of Regional Cooperation among Maritime Authorities of South America, Mexico and Panama (ROCRAM) in 1983, Prefectura performs a significant task by contributing to joint working programs, designing strategies for marine environmental protection, training personnel from Merchant Marines and Maritime Administrations, improving the automatic processing of data, developing contingency plans, controlling vessel traffic within the region, improving maritime regulations, and fighting against drug traffic and other crimes. All these activities are performed within the framework of technical cooperation mechanisms that characterize this Institution.

Within the area of ROCRAM, several functions have been fulfilled as a result of the Viña del Mar Agreement for Port State Control, whose Secretariat and Information Center were entrusted to Prefectura.

Likewise, Prefectura's officers have been appointed as consultants in different Latin American countries in order to cooperate with the development of regulations and services intended to facilitate the enforcement of international rules and regulations.

Prefectura usually attends bilateral meetings within the framework of the different agreements that were subscribed, in order to discuss technical and legal matters associated with its legal obligations. Examples of these meetings are: the Administrative Committees of the River Plate and Uruguay rivers, the Inter-governmental Committee of the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway, the Mercosur working groups, the Cuenca del Plata (River Plate Basin) system, the border committees, and so on.

Finally, exchange and cooperation relationships with foreign organizations performing similar functions, particularly with Coast Guards services, are very significant. For instance, the relationship of Prefectura and the United States Coast Guard is characterized by a wide range of professional activities of mutual interest.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has promoted many international instruments related to maritime safety, marine environment protection, and different technical and legal issues within IMO’s responsibility.

Among these instruments, it is worth mentioning the conventions regarding safety of life at sea, collision prevention, load lines, safety of containers, satellite maritime telecommunications, safety of fishing vessels, training and certification of seafarers, maritime search and rescue, prevention of pollution from ships, dumping of waste and other substances at sea, cooperation in the prevention of pollution, liability and compensation, facilitation of maritime traffic, tonnage measurement of ships, and suppression of unlawful acts.

The implementation of these conventions is the responsibility of the appropriate bodies of the State administrations. This is the case of the Prefectura Naval Argentina in our country, which is continuously entrusted with the mission of serving as enforcement authority of conventions related to navigation in general and to maritime safety, prevention of pollution, and associated technical and legal affairs in particular.

Prefectura attended and regularly attends meetings of the IMO working groups, cooperates with the development of its working programs, and has a notorious organic and functional parallelism with the IMO. For this reason, it is identified as the national agency in charge of complying with the obligations arising out from the implementation of the conventions administered by this specialized United Nations Agency.

The Argentine Republic has a prominent place among IMO Member States thanks to the tasks carried out by Prefectura and due to the number of conventions that were adopted and implemented, in line with Argentina’s history at the international level and the traditional course of action of its institutions.