Piracy

Maritime transport has become significant as the backbone of global trade and, consequently, globalization, which is the basis of the globalizing project of the economy, which, with an attitude of dependence on the development of countries and the international maritime trade, lends more importance to maritime trade. Securing maritime trade, with the emergence of recent insecurity as the most important concern for the countries that benefit from this, is one of the most important options for world trade due to its high transport capability, low cost and ease of transportation. As a result of the vast dependence of countries on maritime trade, there are various problems, such as piracy and environmental pollution, which, in turn, has become a global downfall. Modern piracy has new patterns. Although the nature of the crime is the very essence of this activity, the context for replacing these changes is to be considered. Piracy and robbery not only can stop the logistics chain from leading to economic consequences, but also it will lead to the loss of life, short-term and long-term health problems for seafarers and travelers; the consequences that require more analysis. In this article, we have tried to investigate the history of piracy and analyze the pathology of this global problem and provide solutions for the issue.

On 15 February 2012, two Indian nationals aboard the St. Antony, an Indian fishing ship, were killed allegedly as a result of gunshot wounds following a confrontation with the Enrica Lexie, an Italian merchant ship, in international waters, off the Indian coast. The nature of the confrontation has been in contention. Enrica Lexie was traveling from Singapore to Egypt accompanied by six Italian navy marines. Enrica Lexie began firing at India's Exclusive Economic Zone because they thought pirate boats attacked them. Indian Navy detained the Enrica Lexie and two Italian navy Marines were arrested on charges of murder of two Indian fishermen. This incident caused the dispute between India and Italy over criminal jurisdiction, functional immunity of Italian navy marines, and the practice of arming merchant ships. They refer this dispute to arbitration and finally, Tribunal issued its award. This paper via the descriptive-analytical method, exploring existing documents, conventions, and customary international law shows that criminal jurisdiction over Italian merchant ships at EEZ belongs to the flag state. Most countries permit and even force to arm their flag merchant ships to fight against pirates, so this practice becomes a rule of customary international law. As a result, actions of these Italian marines are attributed to Italy as a governmental act, and state officials are entitled, in principle, to functional immunity from foreign jurisdiction regarding their ‘official’ acts, i.e., when acting in their official capacity.

The crime of piracy as the oldest international crime has emerged in a modern way in recent years. In addition, piracy is one of the first and main crimes that have been subject to universal jurisdiction. Today, this crime has moved away from its classic way and has progressed to the point of a transformation. This has caused the United Nations Security Council, as the main pillar of maintaining international peace and security, to deal with it many times by issuing resolutions. Despite continuous efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of piracy in domestic courts, the international community has not been able to effectively deal with this phenomenon, because states are facing problems to suppress piracy, including the increasing human rights norms. For this purpose to fight against piracy, new and potential solutions have been proposed, including the establishment of a special international court, referring piracy to the International Criminal Court, as well as dealing with the crime of piracy as a terrorist crime through anti-terrorist conventions. In this regard, according to outcomes of this research, combat to modern piracy in the International Criminal Court can be considered the most effective and efficient way. Compiled with a descriptive and analytical method, by setting this outcome as a hypothesis and examining the characteristics and the limitations of combat to this crime, new and potential solutions of combat to impunity of modern piracy, especially in International Criminal Court, has been discussed.

From ancient times, piracy has been known as an enemy of humanity and an international crime. One of the areas that has become the main center of piracy in recent years is the Gulf of Guinea . Due to the discovery and exploitation of rich oil resources, and the high traffic of oil tanker ships and other fishing and cargo ships, this area has been considered by pirates and has made maritime security confronted with a serious threat. According to statistics, between 2009 and 2021, about 265 cases of pirate attacks on ships have been reported in this region, which is regarded as the highest figure in the whole. The main question is, what are the effective causes of the creation and expansion of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea? And what solutions are there to confront this phenomenon? In response to this question, the hypothesis is that regional differences and the political, economic and social situations of the coastal states are the most important reasons in the spread of piracy in this region, and regional and extra-regional measures to confront it are inevitable. But the weakness of the countries in the region in securing the sea fleet, widespread unemployment, conflicts between countries in delimiting the borders of the sea, have made it difficult to fight against piracy in this region. The findings of this research show that identifying and eliminating the various factors involved in the occurrence of this crime depends on efforts beyond diplomatic cooperation. The lack of similarity between criminal measures and especially the obvious difference in the political conditions of the countries of the region compared to other regions facing the phenomenon of piracy, such as the case of the Gulf of Aden, makes it impossible to apply a similar solution to the Gulf of Guinea.

Piracy or the use of violence by various types of ships or vessels to take the property of the passengers of other ships or vessels has been one of the important maritime threats from the past until today. During the Middle Ages until the 19 th century, due to the flourishing sea trade, in the Indian Ocean, this phenomenon was widespread, but few scattered reports of it have remained. This research aims to explain the geographical and cultural relationship between the history and modern forms of piracy in the Indian Ocean, to provide a constructive analysis of the roots of piracy nowadays. Based on this, in this research, with a library method and a descriptive-analytical method, and by referring to the most important historical sources and research, scattered reports of piracy during the first to thirteenth centuries AH were analyzed. At the same time, by using analytical studies in cultural criminology, an attempt has been made to analyze this phenomenon from the perspective of deterministic theories and subcultures. Thus, it has been shown that the geography and aspects of the piracy culture in the Indian Ocean are consistent with this phenomenon today. It has also been shown that the inclusive Iranian governments have played the most effective role in fighting this phenomenon; it has been suggested that in today's approach to the phenomenon of piracy, the cultural view of the social and political roots of this phenomenon should be considered. In dealing with it, the fundamental methods of the cultural solution should be used in confrontation with the phenomenon, together with legal and military actions. It has also been suggested that the Iranian government should play a trans-regional cultural effort to revive its historical role in controlling this phenomenon.          

In recent decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been struggling with piracy security threats and has suffered a lot. The piracy crisis and the presence of pirates in international waters have become one of the main crises facing the Iranian economy. Considering Iran's determination to develop its maritime transit and obtaining a larger share of the transit of free waters, attention has been paid to the issue of maritime security and the investigation of the phenomenon of piracy and ways of coping with it. Iran, like other members of the international community and following the resolutions of the Security Council, considers the threat of piracy, especially Somali pirates, to be a threat to itself, and through the navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran's military, a combination of legal, political-military measures in the form of Defense diplomacy has taken to deal with it. This article seeks to answer the question of what role the Iran Navy has played in countering the threat of piracy security within the framework of the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) and in accordance with international law. The findings of this paper indicate that Iran Navy has been in charge of maritime security in the last decade to deal with this security threat and has been able to reliably restrain these threats by legal, political, military mechanisms. And it has a relatively successful performance. The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of the background and conceptual evolution of piracy and to discover its various forms throughout human history and the legal and international status of the fight against piracy and the actions taken by the Iran Navy in the context of IONS to ensure maritime safety.