Participants at the four-day meeting in Accra would analyse the Act, which is designed to foster international cooperation in the fight against maritime crime and enhance law enforcement by member states.

In a working document made available to the Ghana News Agency in Tema, Mr. Serge Kouadio Koffi, the Programme Officer, IT and Communication  Directorate of External Relations, ECOWAS Commission, said the draft Supplementary Act was being developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as part of the Support to West Africa Integrated Maritime Security (SWAIMS), funded by the European Union.

The SWAIMS project is to support member states to strengthen the prosecution of piracy and other maritime crimes by improving the application of the rule of law at sea and on land.

It also seeks to focus on the development of a regional maritime legal framework, its dissemination, and sensitisation initiatives, ensuring that new maritime crime legislation is drafted and submitted for approval.

The project would deal with the development of memoranda of understanding about the prosecution of maritime crime suspects and Standard Operating Procedures, Mr. Koffi said.

He said the meeting would ensure that member states were able to tackle the threats of maritime crimes, including piracy, armed robbery at sea, and trafficking in drugs, people, and weapons, and to secure the waters of coastal states.