9.4 National Regulations and Legislation
Neither Cospas-Sarsat nor the other international organizations have the authority or the power to actually enforce their regulations. They are dependent on the individual States that comprise these organizations to make laws and to enforce these laws to give substance to the regulations that have been established by the international organizations. The overwhelming support for all of these organizations results in the implementation of the necessary laws and regulations in virtually every country of the world. It is then incumbent on each government, at the national level, to enforce its laws and to ensure that everyone will follow the regulations that have been agreed at the international level.
For Cospas-Sarsat, the regulations that are adopted in the participating nations include standards that have been developed by various scientific, professional and educational organizations, such as the:
· International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC),
· Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services (RTCM),
· RTCA (formerly the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics) in the USA,
· European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) in Europe.
These organizations develop the technical standards that then form the basis of regulations that are established under the laws of the participating States.
Document C/S S.007, the Cospas-Sarsat “Handbook of Beacon Regulations”, is a compilation of the beacon carriage regulations of a large number of nations, including Participants and other (non-participating) nations. This document is based on contributions from representatives of the States that establish these regulations and is maintained by the Cospas-Sarsat Secretariat.