Question

What are The objectives and achievements of the Tokyo Convention?

Answer 1

Tokyo convention, is the convention on offenses and other acts committed on board aircraft, which is an international treaty. It entered into force in 1969 and is titled as "The Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft".

Objectives

The objectives of the Tokyo convention includes providing safety in aircraft, protection of life and property on board and promoting the security of civil aviation. They can also be stated as unification of rules on jurisdiction, question of filling the gap in jurisdiction, scheme of maintaining law and order on board aircraft, protection of persons acting in accordance with the convention, protection of interests of disembarked people and the question of hijacking of aircraft.

Achievements

The convention is made applicable to offences against penal laws. Any act that harms the safety of civilians on board comes under the coverage of this act. It assigns the aircraft commander with certain powers which enables him to prevent any person who is likely to do an offence which disrupts the safety of the people on board. This was something that happened for the first time in the history of international aviation law. It also recognized the need for immunity for certain individuals especially the flight commandants in handling dangerous situations. Since it is an international law, it must be ratified by the countries and till date, it is ratified by 186 countries with or without amendments.