During the opening ceremony of ICAO’s 42nd General Assembly, ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano recognized 14 States’ for their significant progress in improving safety and security oversight systems by awarding them with Council President Certificates. These Certificates are awarded on the basis of the outcomes of ICAO’s Universal Safety and Security Oversight Audit Programmes, which pertain to the effective implementation of ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) in these areas.
During this year’s ceremony, ICAO presented Albania, Azerbaijan, Botswana, India, Morocco, Oman, and Senegal (pictured above) with certificates for their safety progress, while Angola, Bahrain, Cameroon, Indonesia, Kuwait, Moldova, and Togo (pictured below) were recognized for their achievements in aviation security.
The effective implementation of ICAO’s global Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) by States is key to the optimizing and aligning the 193 regulatory frameworks that govern international civil aviation. This is critical to the safety and security of global aviation, which underpins its ability to act as a catalyst for sustainable development worldwide.
ICAO’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) focuses on a State’s capability in providing safety oversight by assessing whether the State has implemented the critical elements of a safety oversight system effectively and consistently. This enables the State to ensure the implementation of ICAO’s SARPs and associated procedures and guidance material. In addition, it provides ICAO with a means to monitor continuously the States’ fulfilment of their safety oversight obligations.
The Universal Security Audit Programme (USAP) assesses Member States’ aviation security oversight systems and ensure effective implementation of security Standards and Recommended Practices. It operates on nine guiding principles that guarantee fairness, consistency, and respect for State sovereignty while strengthening aviation security worldwide: sovereignty, universality, transparency of methodology, timeliness, all-inclusiveness, consistency and objectivity, fairness, quality, and confidentiality.
