Assignment Topic

ICAO conventions on security

PROGRAM: BSAM SEMESTER & SECTION: 7 - A

COURSE: AVIATION SECURITY REG NO: 70072437
INSTRUCTOR: ADNAN KASHIF NAME: Saud Ali Saif

Aviation Conventions

Introduction:- With the benefit of hindsight, it may seem hard to imagine how
the need to address acts of sabotage, unlawful seizure of aircraft and the use of
civil aircraft in terrorist attacks (as was the case on 11 September 2001) could have
been overlooked by the drafters of the Chicago Convention, ICAO’s founding
charter and cornerpiece for international technical legislation in the field of civil
aviation. In 1944, however, no one foresaw such security threats and the need for
security measures.
Provisions for international aviation security were first disseminated as Annex
17 to the Chicago Convention in 1974, and since then have been improved and
updated 16 times. The 10th edition of Annex 17, which contains the 16th
amendment to the Annex, became applicable on 16 November 2018. With the
advent of Annex 17, ICAO began providing States with guidance material to assist
with the implementation of international security measures, the primary document
being the Aviation Security Manual (Doc 8973 – Restricted).
Aviation Conventions List:-
1944: Chicago – the birth of ICAO
The Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention) was signed
on 7 December 1944 by 52 states leading to the creation of the Provisional
International Civil Aviation Organization, pending ratification by at least 26 states.
30 days after the 26th ratification, the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO) was formally established on 4 April 1947 as a specialized agency of the
United Nations.
ICAO was created to promote the safe and efficient development of civil aviation,
and its’ Council (as per Article 54, paragraph L) is charged with the administration
of the principles laid out in the Chicago Convention. This involves setting
international standards and regulations for aviation safety, security and efficiency
as well as the environmental protection of aviation.
However, the first edition of the Chicago Convention did not really touch on
aviation security as it was not until the advent of the Cold War, the Cuban
Revolution and then the problems surrounding Palestinian statehood that the need
for aviation security was to become so apparent.
As a result, it was not until 1963 that the first worldwide legal instrument relating
to aviation security was actually implemented.

1963: Tokyo – the beginnings of inflight security

The Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft
2(Tokyo Convention) was signed on 14 September 1963. It was basic in nature and
addressed incidents and acts that occur inflight which jeopardies the safety of an
aircraft and of persons and property on board, with specific focus on unruly
passengers.
At the time of its introduction, hijackings were still relatively sporadic. The Tokyo
Convention did, however, give certain powers to the captain to restrain passengers
jeopardizing or about to jeopardies flight safety. It also gave authority to the
captain to disembark disruptive or problem passengers at the next port of call. In
addition, it placed obligations on states of next landing to help restore command of
an aircraft to the captain and take delivery of problem passengers and retain them
in custody until prosecution or extradition could be arranged.
By the end of the 1960s, hijackings were becoming a serious problem. During
1969 and 1970, for instance, there were 118 incidents of unlawful seizure of civil
aircraft and 14 incidents of sabotage and armed attacks against civil aviation. The
ratification process was relatively slow and the Tokyo Convention was only
ratified by 80 states in 1969; a year which saw a marked increase in hijackings.
This convention is now ratified by 186 member states, but it was, however,
fundamentally flawed as it was not developed to fully cover the threat to civil
aviation that hijackings pose. At this time, as the number of hijackings increased,
Cuba increasingly became known as a safe haven for hijackers of aircraft who
could escape punishment and this highlighted the major weakness of the Tokyo
Convention; it did not define hijacking as an act of terrorism and it did not impose
any obligation on contracting states to criminalize such acts.

1970: Hague – defining hijacking

The ICAO Council referred the problem of hijacking to the ICAO Legal
Committee to consider a new legal instrument. The committee submitted a draft
convention to ICAO at The Hague and the Convention for the Suppression of
Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft (Hague Convention) was signed on 16 December
1970 and entered into force on 14 October 1971.
This convention defined hijacking and obligated states to treat perpetrators with
“severe penalties” in line with capital offences. The Hague Convention placed an
obligation on states to either prosecute or extradite perpetrators, thus closing off
safe havens such as Cuba, which hijackers had been exploiting.
The Hague Convention was largely successful as it closed many of the gaps in the
Tokyo Convention, and 1971 saw a marked reduction in hijackings. The Hague
Convention has now been ratified by 185 states, but a major weakness with this
convention was that it only covered events inflight.

1971: Montreal – addressing other acts such as sabotage

On 21 February 1970, a bomb exploded in the cargo hold of an Austrian Airlines
Sud Aviation Caravels flight, but in this case the flight was able to divert to
Frankfurt safely. On the same day, a bomb exploded in the cargo hold of Swissair
330 shortly after departing Zurich, killing 47 passengers and crew. The Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility.
Then, in September 1970, a Swissair, BOAC and TWA aircraft were hijacked and
sabotaged by the PFLP at Dawson’s Field, a desert airstrip in Jordan. In addition,
the group attempted to hijack an El Al flight at Amsterdam, but were foiled when
one hijacker was shot and killed and another, Leila Khaled, was captured. The
group also hijacked a Pan Am aircraft which was later sabotaged, shortly after
landing at Cairo.
These atrocities led to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts
against the Safety of Civil Aviation (Montreal Convention), which was signed on
23 September 1971 and entered into force on 23 January 1973. One of the key
advances in this convention was that it criminalized those not on board involved in
aviation terrorist acts.
The main provisions of Montreal were to criminalize placing on board any device
that might jeopardies the safety of that aircraft inflight; destroying or damaging air
navigation facilities that might jeopardies the safety of an aircraft inflight;
destroying or damaging an aircraft inflight; violence against a person on board a
flight; and communicating false information to jeopardies flight safety.
The Montreal Convention has now been ratified by 188 states. It is generally
viewed as a successful legal instrument as it strengthened much that was achieved
in the Hague Convention. It did, however, only cover aircraft inflight or in service.

1974: Chicago revisited – Annex 17

Meanwhile, as hijackings increased in frequency, an Extraordinary Assembly was
held in Montreal from 16 to 30 June 1970 and subsequently initial aviation security
standards were developed and circulated to contracting states for comment in 1972.

Montreal Convention 1988 (document no. 9518)

• Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts of Violence at Airports
Serving International Civil Aviation
• It was held on 24 February 1988 at Montreal
• It contains 9 articles
• This protocol supplements the Convention for the Suppression of
• Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation, done at Montreal on
23 September 1971
 • THIS PROTOCOL CONSIDERING that unlawful acts of violence which
endanger or Are likely to endanger the safety of persons at airports
serving international Civil aviation or which jeopardize the safe operation
of such airports Undermine the confidence of the peoples of the world in
safety at such airports

Beijing Convention (Document no. 9960)

• The Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Relating to
International Civil Aviation)
• It was held on 10 September 2010 at Beijing.
• It contains 25 articles
• Parties that ratify the Convention agree to criminalize using civil aircraft as a
weapon and using dangerous materials to attack aircraft or other targets on the
ground. The illegal transport of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons is also
criminalized under the Convention.