Carol Forsloff - Piracy doesn't just impact Africa, but trade routes that can affect other countries of the world, so the UN, in addition to issuing a ban, islooking at options for controlling it.
The Security Council under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter authorizes the use of force as one of these options laid out in a new report issued by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General.
The number of piracy attacks has increased due to the growing number of incidents off the coast of Somalia, but still there are others as well. Ban Ki-moon's reports that in 2008, 111 vessels were attacked. That number nearly doubled to 217 in 2009. The incidents keep growing: "Bearing in mind that each incident involves a number of individuals, it is clear that there are large numbers of persons involved," the Secretary-General said. The successes of these pirates has been reduced by increased naval patrols, but the problem remains acute, according to the United Nations. In May of this year 450 people continue to be held hostage on ships the pirates were able to capture off the Somali coast.The prosecution and imprisonment of pirates is already an option that is moving forward in the UN to control the problem.
Kenya opened a new high-security courtroom that was built by the UN in Mombasa. This is an effort to try criminal piracy cases in a secure environment. The Secretary-General underlines that arranging for punishment such as prison is just as important as prosecution because of the growing number of incidents. Although the economics may be difficult, Ban Ki-moon stresses the importance of creating and keeping in place a new judicial body to deal with the problems of piracy.
"A new judicial mechanism to address piracy and armed robbery at sea off the coast of Somalia would be addressing a different situation to that addressed by the existing United Nations and United Nations-assisted tribunals," Mr. Ban pointed out. "Such a mechanism would face ongoing criminal activity and potentially a large caseload, with no predictable completion date."
A detailed report can be found at Merlin, a resource network of materials of military policy that has, among other sources, information on what the United States is doing about the issue of piracy.
