}
III POSSIBLE ACTION BY THE CONFERENCE
Action by Maritime Nations
20.
(i) Participants in the Conference could reaffirm the obligations of flag states in respect of the duty of ships' masters to give assistance to those in distress at sea.
(Note: It would be impracticable to add any declaration concerning the circumstances in which a Master should exercise his discretion not to carry out a rescue on grounds that this would endanger his ship, or whether to provide help to refugees without taking them on board his vessel).
(ii) Participants could declare that for the purposes of rescue at sea, no distinction is to be drawn between the
survivors of shipwreck or conventional maritime disaster, and refugees who may have left their country in unseaworthy
craft.
7
(iii) Participants could call on the masters of vessels of all states not to deviate from the probable and usual course of their voyage except as might be necessary to carry out their obligation to render assistance to those in distress.
(iv) Participants could call on states not already parties
to the relevant international Conventions to accede to them.
(v) Participants could agree to ensure that vessels under their control should not accept or execute charters, the essential purpose of which is to convey refugees as illegal emigrants from their own country.
Action by the UNHCR
21.
嘍
Participants might express the wish that the UNHCR should accept responsibility for liaising between the various parties, and for processing refugees, from the time when notification is
received of a rescue until resettlement has been effected.
/ Action