IMRF's Global Advocacy and Influence Work

The IMRF’s Global Advocacy and Influence work focuses on strengthening the international systems, processes and procedures, that are critical to search and rescue (SAR) and identifying weaknesses and making proposals for solutions. And to ensure that the voices of SAR practitioners are heard as global standards are shaped.

This work brings together engagement with organisations such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Through these relationships, the IMRF promotes and supports the development of safer, more coordinated and more effective SAR operations across the maritime domain.

The IMRF has consultative status and takes an active role at the IMO working to ensure that the perspective of the global SAR community is represented when policy is developed. This includes providing technical expertise, highlighting emerging risks and advocating for international policy, shaping the way SAR services operate and cooperate. The IMRF’s engagement helps ensure that regulations and the intentions of any new or modified ways of working in SAR, reflect the realities faced by those who work in the sector. This includes input into updates to the IAMSAR Manual, as well as wider work on safety and operational frameworks.

By working with the WHO, the IMRF plays a role in ensuring that maritime SAR is part of the drowning prevention framework.

Collaboration with the ICRC helps ensure that humanitarian principles, protection concerns and the realities of rescue at sea in armed conflicts are better understood in wider humanitarian policy.

Engagement with ICAO ensures that maritime aviation SAR standards and requirements develop in ways that reflect the operational experience of the maritime SAR community. 

Through its advocacy work, the IMRF acts as a bridge between practitioners and policymakers. By sharing evidence from its members and partners and promoting good practice across regions, it helps shape a safer, more coordinated and more resilient global SAR system.

The IMRF is the international voice of maritime SAR collaborating with the IMO and playing a significant role in the development of international maritime SAR regulation and policy.