Safety of Life at Sea Convention

The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) is the main treaty setting minimum safety standards for merchant ships: construction, fire protection, life-saving equipment, radio and navigation. The International Maritime Organization administers it, and flag states enforce it on the ships they register.

The first version followed the loss of the Titanic in 1912 and was agreed in 1914. The convention in force today dates from 1974 and entered into force in 1980; it is updated by amendment rather than by new treaties. Chapter V covers safety of navigation, including distress and rescue duties. Warships and troopships fall outside the convention, which is why naval programmes rely on classification rules and national standards. In September 2026 DNV and Fassmer said they would seek DNV sign-off for crewless naval and state-owned ships under the robot-vessel rules DNV adopted in January 2025.

At the Northwood conference on Hormuz on 22-23 April 2026, more than 30 nations treated it, with the 1968 Traffic Separation Scheme for the strait, as the legal baseline for any enforcement plan.