The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is an organization focused on the regulation and coordination of activities in the International maritime sector. IMO plays an important role in being responsible for the safety and safety of shipping activities and the prevention of marine pollution caused by ships. The background that spearheaded this relationship was Indonesia, which used its membership in the IMO to deal with a case, namely the Montara Oil Spill that occurred off the east coast of Indonesia on August 21, 2009 for 74 days, polluting the waters of the Indonesian Timor Sea.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) assisted Indonesia in the Montara oil case by helping to develop marine pollution liability and compensation guidelines. Indonesia and Denmark successfully passed these guidelines at the IMO Legal Committee. These guidelines are non-mandatory, but serve to address situations such as oil leaks and other events at sea.
IMO has an important role in efforts to prevent marine pollution due to oil spills from ships. IMO has issued the MARPOL convention (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships) which aims to prevent marine pollution due to oil spills and other waste from ships. The convention regulates the use of environmentally friendly equipment and technology on ships, and sets international standards for ship waste management. In addition, IMO also has programs to increase the awareness and skills of ship personnel in dealing with emergency situations such as oil spills.
Indonesia also receives technical assistance from the IMO in managing oil leaks at sea. Indonesia's Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs issued a National Workshop on IMO Liability and Compensations, which involved more than 40 participants from various government agencies and national and private oil companies, such as Pertamina and Medco. This activity is one form of technical assistance from IMO that is utilized by Indonesia.
In the case of the Montara oil pollution, Indonesia has a responsibility to deal with the impact of pollution in the sea. Under UNCLOS 1982, states must act to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment and not transfer, directly or indirectly, damage or harm from one area to another or convert one type of pollution to another. In addition, the principle of strict liability also applies, whereby any person whose actions use hazardous and toxic materials is strictly liable for their impact. Therefore, Indonesia should also be involved in the resolution of this case and act in accordance with international conventions governing liability for marine pollution.
 The refinery is owned by Thailand so Indonesia is seeking damages against the defendants to deal with the losses received by Indonesia. So that this case harms seaweed farmers, fishermen, in some eastern regions of Indonesia, Indonesia addresses the problem of liability for answers and compensation regarding cross-border marine pollution due to offshore land activities. It has been 13 years since this case has not been completed until now, although efforts have been made to implement initiatives that have been carried out in the past, they still require the use of human resources and efforts to establish good relations and cooperation between one country and another and this is what makes Indonesia use the IMO to create international policies and regulations. That is why Indonesia during the administration of President Jokowi continued to conduct diplomacy and actively participate in the IMO. President Jokowi's administration has a strong focus on maritime issues, given that Indonesia has territory that is mostly waters. On the other hand, the impact of losses received by Indonesia, among others:
- Â The Montara oil spill has an impact on Indonesia's water health, so that the people living in the waters have the risk of being exposed to some chemical spills.
- Because of this pollution, the livelihoods of coastal communities will definitely decrease dramatically and this will certainly reduce the national transaction market in the fishing sector and even the tourism sector.
- According to him the quality of the environment or marine life, such as coral reefs and also fish production
With this article I will explain how IMO succeeded in helping Indonesia in this case of Montara Oil.
IMO succeeded in helping Indonesia in the Montara Oil Case by becoming one of the Maritime Organizations that supported Indonesia in asserting Indonesia's sovereignty and jurisdiction over the affected waters so that this case could be handled seriously. Even though it did not directly take part in resolving this case, IMO has certainly provided input to Indonesia in handling this matter with similar cases that have been resolved by IMO members.
The International Maritime Organization's Marine Pollution Accountability and Compensation Guidelines are one of Indonesia's references in resolving the Montara Oil spill case. IMO recommends creating guidelines or model laws containing suggestions from participating countries regarding what can be included in resolving oil spills. The formation of a guideline or international regulatory framework was due to the Montara case which occurred in the Timor Sea, Nusa Tenggara Timor (NTT) in 2009, there were no international rules governing issues regarding responsibility and compensation related to transboundary pollution damage from activities. offshore exploration and exploitation, and caused the resolution of the Montara case to drag on.
At the 97th IMO Legal Committee Session in 2010, Indonesia expressed an initiative to discuss this issue and initiated an international regulatory solution to resolve the problems of responsibility and compensation related to offshore exploration and exploitation activities. So that the thoughts and ideas from the forum discussion were used by Indonesia as a reference for solving the Montara Oil case problem, known as the IMO solution.
Even though IMO indirectly contributed to the handling of the Montara Oil Spill, IMO has provided space to discuss and provide solutions to cases that have been handled. From the cases that have been resolved by the IMO, Indonesia can take the example and steps to resolve the Minysk Montara case with structured and careful steps.
