Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts (SUA 1988)

The SUA Convention, the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, was adopted at Rome on 10 March 1988 and entered force on 1 March 1992. It was a response to the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking and criminalizes seizing a ship by force, violence against persons aboard, destroying or damaging a ship or its cargo, and placing devices likely to destroy a ship. Parties must extradite or prosecute offenders. The 2005 Protocol added offenses covering use of a ship to transport weapons of mass destruction and ship-boarding procedures.