FAL CONVENTION

For international shipping to thrive, a unified, global approach to Facilitation is vital. This is the purpose of the international treaty called the FAL Convention.

The FAL Convention has been in force since 1967 but is kept continually amended and updated by Governments at the FAL Committee of IMO – which usually meets once a year at IMO's London Headquarters.

In its Annex, the FAL Convention contains standards and recommended practices and rules for simplifying formalities, information requirements and procedures on ships' arrival, stay and departure.

Under the FAL Committee, IMO developed standardized FAL documentation (known as FAL Forms) for authorities and Governments to use.

Since April 2019, the FAL Convention makes it mandatory for ships and ports to exchange electronically the declarations identified by the Convention, and as from January 2024, the single window approach is mandatory in all ports. Therefore, all references to paper-based documents or forms have been removed from the FAL Convention. More information about the MSW requirement is available here.

The Explanatory Manual to the Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic contains guidance and interpretation of the provisions of the annex of the FAL Convention, assists in interpreting the legal text of the provisions and provides for a greater understanding of the Convention.

The FAL Committee at its forty-eighth session, approved a new version of the Explanatory Manual to the FAL Convention. This revised manual provides guidance on interpreting the legal text of the Facilitation and its provisions and gives examples of best practices for implementing Standards and Recommended Practices.

The revised Explanatory Manual now includes guidance on the new global standards on illicit activities, maritime corruption and the response to a public health emergency of international concern, amongst others. It includes also guidance on major updates of the last amendments to the FAL Convention on standards as well as recommended practices related to issues such as stowaways, electronic exchange of data between ports and ships, and various procedures for arrival and departure of ships and passengers.

For more detailed information on the FAL Convention click here.

The FAL Convention is available for purchase in print and electronic formats here .