A13. What was the reason for having the Part B Guidelines?

The special status given to Part B (the Guidelines) of the Code [see A12.] is based on the idea of firmness on principles and rights combined with flexibility in the way those principles and rights are implemented. Without this innovation, the MLC, 2006 could never aspire to wide-scale ratification: many of the provisions of existing maritime labour Conventions, which relate to the method of implementing basic seafarers’ rights (rather than to the content of those rights), were transferred to the non-mandatory Part B Guidelines of the Code as their placement in the mandatory Regulations and Part A (Standards) could have resulted in clear obstacles to ratification.

General questions about the MLC, 2006