Maritime piracy

Piracy occurs on nearly all the world’s seas, but it is in the Gulf of Guinea and along the Somali coast that it has developed the most since 2006. Somali pirates have developed new techniques, using small, faster boats for the actual pirating alongside support ships acting as hidden lookouts, far from the coast, on deep-sea routes.

The increasing acts of piracy off the Somali coast represent a menace for maritime traffic, on an essential world trade route, but also for the Somali people itself, given the significance of humanitarian aid to Somalia, 80% of which arrives by sea.

In 2007, 31 acts of piracy off the Somali coast were recorded by the International Maritime Bureau, with 154 people being taken hostage. In July 2007, the International Maritime Organization and the World Food Program (WFP) called upon the international community to provide a solution for bringing humanitarian aid to Somalia, where nearly two million Somalis depend on it.

The French Foreign Ministry suggested that the Defense Ministry implement an operation to secure high-seas convoys of humanitarian aid to Somalia. This operation was announced by the President of the Republic to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on September 25th, 2007. Operation “Alcyon” had a very positive outcome. Between November 16th, 2007 and February 2nd, 2008, nine ships chartered by the WFP were escorted by the French navy, and brought a total of 30,000 metric tons of food aid to Somalia. Denmark took over operation “Alcyon,” followed by the Netherlands, which is currently escorting WFP ships until the end of June.

Beyond these ad hoc contributions by States volunteering to continue this operation, in the coming days we would like to establish its perpetuation in a UNSC resolution regarding Somalia. The Ponant crisis has shown that it is essential to broaden our initiative to the entire piracy problem, in Somalia and elsewhere.

The difficulty for States who wish to act lies in the lack of legal tools available under the Law of the Sea. The Law of the Sea, as set down by the United Nations Montego Bay Convention in 1982, only provides for limited action against piracy. Indeed, it allows any warship or military aircraft to intervene and seize a ship implicated in an act of piracy, without requesting prior approval from the ship’s flag state, but only if the act occurs on the high seas.

On the other hand, if the pirate ship takes refuge in the territorial waters of a neighboring costal state, or if the act occurs in territorial waters, the Law of the Sea does not provide for the right of pursuit from the high seas into territorial waters. This was highlighted in the Ponant affair: the French sail boat was pirated on the high seas, but the pirates then took refuge in Somali territorial waters, legally preventing the battleship Commandant Bouan, following closely behind, from continuing into Somali waters. Thanks to our bilateral contacts with Somali authorities, we were able to request special authorization to enter their territorial waters.

This legal framework is neither sufficient nor satisfactory. This is why France, in conjunction with the United States, has begun discussions this week in the UNSC aimed at adopting, as quickly as possible, a resolution specifically dedicated to combating piracy. The project we would like to submit to our partners first aims to organize, from the high seas, a right of pursuit into territorial waters of signatory states, when caught in the act. We will also explore the possibility of having a dissuasive approach, in the form of patrols through those areas most exposed to piracy and are discussing this with our UNSC partners