International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) - Research Paper Example

 International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Introduction The International Civil Aviation Organization is among the various specialized agencies of the United Nations. It has its headquarters in Montreal, Canada. The organization provides an avenue for member states to promote secure, safe and sustainable development of the international civil aviation. The ICAO was established in 1947 after the signing and ratification of the so-called Chicago Convention. The ICAO consists of the Assembly (sovereign body) and the Council (governing body). The central mission that guides the ICAO is promotion of safety and security, as well as, improving the efficiency of international civil aviation (MacKenzie, 2010). The specialized agency of the UN has regional offices, for example, in Bangkok, Cairo, Paris, Nairobi and more. Chicago Convention In November 1944, the US government invited 55 states to the International Civil Aviation Conference that was held in Chicago. Their main aim was to make arrangements on how the world air routes could have been established by then. In addition, they aimed at setting up an international council, which would collect and study data concerning the world aviation and improve on international aviation. In December 1944, several states signed the Chicago Convention that would later set up the ICAO. The permanent body would facilitate international co-operations and promote the uniformity in standards and regulations of the matters concerning international aviation (Abeyratne, 2014). The Chicago Conference was important because it laid the foundation on which air navigation could operate on a common system in the whole world. Another contribution of the Conference is the promotion of healthy and orderly enhancement of the international civil aviation especially after the WWII. The Chicago Convention consisted of 96 articles that stipulated the restrictions and privileges of all the states that signed the convention. The articles also provided the several International Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) that were meant to regulate the international civil aviation. The Convention promotes the sovereignty of states such that no air transport should be carried out on the airspace of any state without its consent. The internal agreement entails the techniques and principles that would promote international aviation through the ICAO. The principles were introduced for various reasons such as promotion of safety and security, encouraging the aircraft designs, development of airports and airways, elimination of discrimination among the member states and many others (Abeyratne, 2014). Establishment of the ICAO The unavoidable delays in ratifying the Convention led to the creation of the Provisional International Aviation Organization (PICAO). The body was technical and advisory in nature and was mainly established so as to collaborate with other international aviation bodies. In other words, the PICAO came into existence following an interim agreement that the actual ICAO would have taken much time for its establishment. The permanent International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was officially established in April 1947. The ICAO succeeded the International Commission for Air Navigation (ICAN) after a formal agreement among the member states (MacKenzie, 2010). Organizational Structure of the ICAO As stated earlier, the ICAO has two distinct bodies; the sovereign and the governing bodies. The Assembly is the sovereign body, which meets once in a period of three years and is summoned by the Council (governed body). Each member state is entitled to the decisions made in the Assemble where the majority of votes cast formulate the ICAO policies and laws. The Assembly is essentially involved in the detailed review of the technical, legal and economic fields of the Organization and guidance to the other bodies of ICAO (MacKenzie, 2010). The Council consists of 36 states who are elected by the Assembly to serve for a term of three years. All the geographic areas that are not entitled to the Convention, but, contributes to international civil aviation are also represented in the Council. The governing body has subsidiary bodies that aid in directing the work of the entire organization. The principal duty of the ICAO is to promote adoption of the International Standards and Recommended Practice (SARPs) in the international aviation practice. The Council also acts as an arbitrator between the conflicting member states on matters regarding international air transport and adherence to the Chicago Convention’s rules and regulations. The ICAO has an air navigation commission, which is involved in adoption of the SARPs and approval of certain procedures for air navigation services, as well. The ICAO Air Navigation Commission consists of 15 persons who have enough experience and qualifications in practice and science in aeronautics. The experts are nominated the contracting member states and then appointed by the ICAO council. The Commission, however, is assisted by other small groups of aeronautics’ experts in ensuring safety and security of the international civil aviation. The ICAO Secretariat is composed of the air navigation, air transport, legal, technical and administration and services bureaus. The ICAO also works with other bodies of the UN such as the International Telecommunication Union, the World Meteorological Organization and the International Maritime Organization (MacKenzie, 2010). ICAO Head and Regional Offices Montreal, Canada is the headquarters for ICAO even today. However, regional offices were introduced in certain regions in order to ease the work of the Secretariat in coordinating the organization’s activities. One of the major activities is the training and licensing of the personnel required in aeronautics both in the air and on the earth surface (Havel, 2009). The establishment of the regional offices was perpetrated by the fact that there should be uniformity in air transport across the world and not in some parts only. In order to achieve the stated objective a central agency was established in Montreal, Canada so as to govern the operations of the organization from specific areas. In order to ease coordination of the scattered ICAO activities across the world and achieve the stated objectives, the surface of the earth was divided into regions. These regions had specific navigation problems, which were similar in each region. For example, there is the “North Atlantic Region” which is usually associated with long-range navigation across the sea; the “European-Mediterranean Region” where the short-range overseas navigation poses some problems. After the regions were set out, offices were established in each region so as to solve the particular “regional” problems. The operations of the regional activities varied from region to region due to the technical, economic and social environment differences. Today, the ICAO has offices in Dakar, Cairo, Bangkok, Mexico, Nairobi and others. These offices connect the operations of specific regions to the head offices and thus achieving the ICAO goals (Abeyratne, 2014). Financing of the ICAO The financing matters of the ICAO are entailed in Chapter XII of the famous Chicago Convention. The Council (governing body) submits to the Assemble (sovereign body) the annual statements of accounts, annual budgets, as well as, the receipts and expenditures of the organization. The annual budgets are voted upon by the Assembly and the modifications are made in order to suit the organization’s financial ability. The total budget estimated for ICAO in a period of two years, for example, from 2005-2007 is $161.5 million. The ICAO is usually funded by the recipient governments, financing bodies, donor states and other development partners that are in the aviation industry. The private sector has also become interested in ICAO aviation matters and thus they contribute much to the ICAO programmes in terms of finances. In recent years, many private air travel authorities have emerged and have in turn recognized the importance of the ICAO in promoting the international civil aviation. These private airport authorities finance the ICAO, as well. Mission of the ICAO As stated earlier, the central mission of the ICAO is to strengthen security and safety, increase efficiency of the international civil aviation, as well as, promoting the principles and regulations stipulated in the Chicago Convention (Huang, 2009). Challenges facing the ICAO According to a case study conducted on the challenges facing the ICAO in the recent past, management of aviation data is the great problem in the ICAO operations. Aviation data is obtained from the air traffic flows and the regional air transport plans. Visualizing and coordination of the aviation data ensures safe and secure air travel. Mostly the data was not communicated in timely manner and the methods and machines used were inefficient (Williams, 1998). Therefore, the ICAO management recommended economical information systems that would allow flow of aviation data to the head offices so as to increase the responsiveness of ICAO to “regional” navigational problems. References Abeyratne, R. I. R. (2014). Convention on International Civil Aviation: A commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Havel, B. F. (2009). Beyond open skies: A new regime for international aviation. Austin: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business. Huang, J. (2009). Aviation safety and ICAO. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International. MacKenzie, D. (2010). ICAO: A history of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Williams, R. V. (1998). The information systems of international inter-governmental organizations: A reference guide. Stamford, Conn. [u.a.: Ablex. Read More