The adequacies and inadequacies of the piracy regime : a Gulf of Guinea perspective

Maritime piracy is one of the pressing global issues of the present century. The cost of piracy is human, economic, environmental and political. Recognising the piracy threat, the international community has taken several steps to address the problem. Several international organisations, including the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) have taken different initiatives to facilitate an international response to piracy. The UN Security Council has adopted a series of resolutions targeting piracy. As part of a military deterrence measure, the presence and coordination of international navies has been increased in high-risk piracy-affected areas, including the Gulf of Aden. However, international initiatives have proven insufficient and ineffective due to most of them primarily addressing the effects of piracy through military means. The initiatives have thus contributed only to reduce the number of attacks and their success rate, while failing to rectify the underlying reasons for piracy or solve the problems ashore in a sustainable manner. The current international framework for suppressing piracy has also been considered as insufficient to curb piracy in the sense that it does not provide any mechanism for the successful prosecution of pirates. In recent years, piracy has emerged as a growing problem in the Gulf of Guinea. The gulf has, in the past years, witnessed a sharp rise in pirate attacks. Alarmingly, both the frequency of piracy attacks and the level of physical violence against seafarers have increased in recent years. Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has become so prevalent that it is now a growing risk for the states in the region. There are also indications of links in the area between piracy and other types of organised crime such as oil bunkering and drug trafficking. The problem has thus become a recent source of concern for the international community of nations. The states in the region lack the technical and logistical capability or the financial resources to counter the threat effectively. In addition, the limited regional integration in the maritime sphere creates further concern in this situation. In this context, there is a need for establishing enhanced cooperation at the regional level through the formulation of a comprehensive regional strategy. The thesis first outlines the international and regional framework for piracy with special emphasis on the strengths, weaknesses and possibilities of the current legal regime the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA) has been deficient in addressing the piracy problem, and focuses on some of the cooperative efforts between states in regional initiatives in Southeast Asia and East Africa, to emphasise the growing strength of regional agreements to curb piracy. Thereafter, it addresses the issue of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea by referring to its underlying causes and adverse effects, and finally evaluates the effectiveness of the current anti-piracy initiatives of the region. In doing so, it identifies the problems arising from the lack of coordination among the various organisations engaged in addressing piracy and explores the reasons for these shortcomings