This thesis focuses on the issue of maritime pirate attacks prosecution. The proposal of the establishment of an International Piracy Court is connected to the growth of pirate attacks in the area of the Gulf of Aden off the borders of Somalia between 2007 and 2011. The Somali government was not able to suppress this threat to the international security and pirates often avoided trial. Other countries were not willing to prosecute pirates at their national courts. By that time the thought of the establishment of the new specialized international tribunal arised. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate if there actually is the necessity to create an International Piracy Court in the current local and global situation.

This thesis attempts to contribute to the discussion over the problem of maritime piracy that poses a threat to maritime transport as well as international trade. The impact of maritime piracy was researched mainly in the context of Somali pirates. Currently the problem concerns other areas, which are the subject of my investigation. The thesis is focused on maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and Southeast Asia, which are the current piracy hotspots. The main goal is to identify the implications of maritime piracy and analyze its impact on international trade in the given regions.

In this study, a method is developed for modelling and classifying behaviour of maritime vessels in a piracy situation. Prior knowledge is used to construct a probabilistic graphical model of maritime vessel behaviour. This model is a novel variant of a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN), that extends the switching linear dynamic system (SLDS) to accommodate contextual information. A generative model and a classifier model are developed. The purpose of the generative model is to generate simulated data by modelling the behaviour of fishing vessels, transport vessels and pirate vessels in a maritime piracy situation. The vessels move, interact and perform various activities on a predefined map. A novel methodology for evaluating and optimising the generative model is proposed. This methodology can easily be adapted to other applications. The model is evaluated by comparing simulation results with 2011 pirate attack reports. The classifier model classifies maritime vessels into predefined categories according to their behaviour. The classification is performed by inferring the class of a vessel as a fishing, transport or pirate vessel class. The classification method is evaluated by classifying the data generated by the generative model and comparing it to the true classes of the simulated vessels. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / PhD / Unrestricted

The diploma thesis analyzes the impacts of maritime piracy on international community. The study analyzes the situation in terms of economic impacts, but also in terms of international cooperation in solving piracy issues. The aim of the diploma thesis is to define most vulnerable locations, quantify economic impacts and evaluate the impacts of military missions in the affected regions, as well as analyze the published recommendations.

Ces dernières années, les attaques de pirates contre des navires ou des champs pétroliers n'ont cessé de se multiplier et de s'aggraver. Pour exemple, l'attaque contre la plateforme Exxon Mobil en 2010 au large du Nigeria s'est soldée par l'enlèvement de dix-neuf membres d'équipage et la réduction de 45.000 barils de sa production pétrolière quotidienne ce qui a engendré une montée des prix à l'échelle internationale.Cet exemple est une parfaite illustration de l'ampleur des dommages sur la sécurité des infrastructures pétrolières offshore.Dans le cadre de notre recherche, nous proposons une démarche de pilotage et de management du risque de piraterie en se basant sur le concept des réseaux bayésiens qui permettent la représentation des connaissances et le calcul des probabilités conditionnelles.Une dimension temporelle a été ajoutée par le recours aux réseaux bayésiens qualifiés de « dynamiques ». Ces réseaux, fondés sur les chaines de Markov cachées ou filtres de Kalman, se révèlent très performants dans le domaine de l'analyse des risques.L'application de ces réseaux au domaine de la piraterie a été envisagée, les apports et les limites seront évalués dans le cadre de cette thèse. / In recent years, pirate attacks against ships or oil fields have continued to multiply and worsen. For example, the attack against the Exxon Mobil platform in 2010 in the coast of Nigeria has resulted in the removal of nineteen crew members and the reduction of 45,000 barrels of daily oil production which resulted in a rise prices internationally.This example is a perfect illustration of the extent of damage on the safety of offshore oil infrastructure.As part of our research, we propose an approach to control and management of the risk of piracy based on the concept of Bayesian networks that enable knowledge representation and calculation of conditional probabilities.A temporal dimension was added by the use of Bayesian networks called "dynamic". These networks, based on Markov chains hidden or Kalman filters, are proving very effective in the field of risk analysis.The application of these networks on piracy was considered, the contributions and limitations will be evaluated as part of this thesis.

Les espaces maritimes font l’objet de nombreuses atteintes qui mettent en péril leur sécurité. Les faits illicites des États d’une part, et l’accroissement de la criminalité d’autre part, sont de nature à faire peser des risques dommageables importants pour la sécurité de la navigation, du milieu marin et des utilisateurs de la mer. Le Chapitre VII de la Charte des Nations Unies, qui n’a pas en principe pour vocation la protection de la sécurité maritime, est régulièrement mis en oeuvre par le Conseil de sécurité en mer au cours de ses missions de maintien de la paix. A cet effet, il arrive parfois qu’il participe indirectement par ricochet à la protection des espaces maritimes contre les faits illicites des États à cette occasion. Au cours de cette dernière décennie le Conseil de sécurité utilise également le Chapitre VII pour directement protéger les espaces maritimes contre les actes de criminalité qui s’y produisent. Il se dégage ainsi une pratique ambivalente du Conseil de sécurité de mise à disposition du Chapitre VII au service de la sécurité maritime qui est révélatrice d’une contribution du droit de la sécurité collective à la consolidation du droit de la mer. / Maritime areas are subject to many violations that represent real threats to them. Wrongful Acts of States on the one hand, and the increasing number of crimes on the other hand, contribute to endanger the safety of the navigational system, but also of the marine environment and of the sea users. Although, its main purpose is not to take care of the maritime security, the Chapter VII from the Charter of the United Nations is often used by the Security Council, when they implement peace-keeping missions.Therefore, it can sometimes indirectly participate and protect maritime areas from the wrongful acts committed by some States. During the last ten years, the Security Council has also resorted to Chapter VII in order to protect the maritime areas from the criminal acts that take place there. The impression which emerges from this is that of an ambivalent policy, which is indicative of the collective security’s contribution to the Law of the Sea.