The Postal History of ICAO

International Standards and Recommended Practices

As the Organization preceding ICAO, the International Commission for Air Navigation (ICAN) held twenty-nine sessions between July 1922 and October 1946, with an interruption during WWII. ICAN had developed 8 Annexes (A to H), as follows:

Eight Annexes to the Paris Convention		Corresponding Annexes to the Chicago Convention
A	Classification of Aircraft and Definitions, the Markings of Aircraft; Registration of Aircraft; Call Signs	H
B	Certificates of Airworthiness	G
C	Log Books	F
D	Rules as to Lights and Signals; Rules for air Traffic	C and D
E	Operating Crew	E
F	Aeronautical Maps and Ground Signs	J
G	Collection and Dissemination of Meteorological Information	I
H	Customs	K

With regards to Annex I – Radio Communications, this Annex had not been implemented in the Paris Convention, as the Protocol of Brussels of 1 June 1935 (signed during the 23^rd Session of ICAN held in Brussels, Belgium from 27 May to 1 June 1935) dealing with this new Annex was never ratified. Work and amendments on this Annex started from 1935 without any final implementation in the Paris Convention. There was no Annex in the Paris Convention dealing with the question of Rescue. The ICAN Convention was a limited one and so was its implementation, because even during most of the 1930’s the aeroplane was a regional rather than a world-wide means of transport.

At the Chicago Conference in 1944, drafts of twelve technical Annexes were completed to serve as a guide to world-wide practice pending the coming into force of the Convention on International Civil Aviation and then their formal adoption by the ICAO Council and then acceptance by States.

Twelve original Annexes to the Chicago Convention
A	Airways Systems
B	Communications Procedures and Systems
C	Rules of the Air
D	Air Traffic Control Practices
E	Standards Governing the Licensing of Operating and Mechanical Personnel
F	Log Book Requirements
G	Airworthiness Requirements for Civil Aircraft Engaging in International Air Navigation
H	Aircraft Registration and Identification Marks
I	Meteorological Protection of International Aeronautics
J	Aeronautical Maps and Charts
K	Customs Procedures and Manifests
L	Search and Rescue, and Investigation of Accidents

It is to be noted that a draft technical Annex on Operations could not be prepared by the Chicago Conference in time to be included with the other Annexes found in Appendix V of the Final Act. When PICAO came into being in 1945, the OPS Division became therefore responsible for the preparation of a text on this subject.

When PICAO came into existence, much of its work involved the drafting of recommendations for standards, practices and procedures to be adopted by States pending the establishment of International Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS) by the permanent Organization. At its first session, the PICAO Council organized the work of technical divisions with a view to effecting as rapidly as possible, in accordance with Resolution II of the Final Act of the Chicago Conference, the revision of the draft technical Annexes constituting Appendix V of the Final Act. The various divisions met and drew up specifications for what were then known as PICA0 Recommendations for Standards, Practices and Procedures during the interim period. After approval by the PICAO Council, these recommendations were presented to the various Member States for adoption into their national regulations. After the coming into effect of the Convention, they would assume the title of International Standards and Recommended Practices.

A Standard is any specification for physical characteristics, configuration, materiel, performance, personnel or procedure, the uniform application of which is recognized as necessary for the safety or regularity of international air navigation and to which Contracting States will conform in accordance with the Convention. A Recommended Practice is any specification, the uniform application of which is recognized as desirable for the safety, regularity or efficiency of international air navigation and to which Contracting States will endeavour to conform in accordance with the Convention.

Two committees of the PICAO Council, e.g. the Air Navigation Committee and the Air Transport Committee, were established and the technical divisions composed of specialists from Members States and of observers from organizations interested in international civil aviation, assisted by the Organization’s Secretariat, were directed and coordinated by the Committees.

Front page of the Chicago Convention

With the coming into existence of the permanent Organization in April 1947, the status of the standards underwent a major change, as the work of the divisions was considered by the Air Navigation Commission, then adopted by the Council and finally submitted to the Contracting States. If a majority of the States does not register disapproval of these standards and recommended practices, they become effective; each state is bound to put them into practices or to notify to ICAO of any difference between any of its own practices and those established by the international standard. Adoption of these standards by the Council gives them status as Annexes to the Convention.

As standards were developed, either the subjects of annexes were split or new annexes were conceived, and most of the titles were revised. Also, as the lettering system of the annexes based on the English alphabet might have led to confusion in other languages, the nomenclature of the annexes was changed to numerals. Since first adoption of the annexes, many amendments to them were considered in a continuous process of improvement and development.

Annexes to the Chicago Convention as adopted by 1953		Titles changed over the years since 1953
1	Personnel Licensing
2	Rules of the Air
3	Meteorological Codes	Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation
4	Aeronautical Charts
5	Dimensional Units to be used in Air-Ground Communications	Units of Measurement to be Used in Air and Ground Operations
6	Operation of Aircraft – Scheduled International Air Services	Operation of Aircraft
7	Aircraft Nationality and Registration Marks
8	Airworthiness of Aircraft
9	Facilitation of International Air Transport	Facilitation
10	Aeronautical Telecommunications
11	Air Traffic Services
12	Search and Rescue
13	Aircraft Accident Inquiry	Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation
14	Aerodromes
15	Aeronautical Information Services

In addition, a material not yet sufficiently mature for inclusion in annexes has been assembled in a series of publications entitled Procedures for Air Navigation Services (PANS); approved by the Council for worldwide application, they may also comprise material prepared as an amplification of the basic principles in the corresponding annexes and designed to assist the user in the application of those principles. Moreover, specifications peculiar to some areas of the world, known as Regional Supplementary Procedures (SUPPS), were developed from the 1960s; they have a status similar to PANS in that they are approved by the Council, but only for application in their respective region. To facilitate the implementation and to promote the uniform application of the specifications in the various Annexes and PANS, Technical Manuals or Guidance Material in several forms or Manuals were later developed from the 1960s.

In the early years of civil aviation, no one foresaw the necessity of having provisions covering the negative side of civil aviation. The Organization addressed the subject of protection of the environment initially at the 16^th Session of the Assembly held in Buenos Aires in 1968; the resulting complex study of the effects of aircraft noise led in 1971 to the adoption of Annex 16 - Aircraft Noise. The effect of aircraft engine emissions on atmospheric pollution was later examined. The scope of the existing Annex 16 was thus widened in 1981 to include aircraft engine emission provisions and the document was reorganized and re-titled Environmental Protection.

In its concern about the growing threat of violence against international civil aviation and its facilities, including unlawful seizure of aircraft, an Extraordinary Session of the ICAO Assembly was convened on this subject in Montreal, in June 1970. Subsequently in 1974, the Council adopted SARPS in Annex 17 on Security: Safeguarding International Civil Aviation against Acts of Unlawful Interference.

In the 70s, ICAO had to address the problem of aviation’s emergence as a major mode of commerce, i.e. the growing threat to passengers, crews and public posed by the transport of dangerous goods. In 1976, it was estimated that more than one half of the materials carried by all modes of transport were potentially dangerous. To ensure that dangerous cargo can be carried safely by air, ICAO adopted in 1981 Annex 18 on The Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air, which became effective on 1 January 1984. This annex is somewhat unique in that it reflects coordinated efforts with the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ensuring full compatibility with their technical instructions.

The ICAO Air Navigation Commission, at the fourth and fifth meetings of its 190th Session on 8 May 2012, considered proposals developed by the Safety Management Panel (SMP) to transfer the provisions on safety management responsibilities and processes from existing Annexes for consolidation in new Annex 19 - Safety Management and related consequential amendment proposals to existing Annexes. The new Annex supports ICAO’s global safety strategy, which calls for improved standardization, increased collaboration among aviation stakeholders, new information-sharing initiatives, and prioritizing investments in technical and human resources required to ensure safe operations. The ICAO safety management International Standards and Recommended Practices provide the high-level requirements that States must implement to fulfill their safety management responsibilities related to, or in direct support of, the safe operation of aircraft. Being the first new ICAO Annex in over 30 years, Annex 19 became applicable on 14 November 2013.

Four new Annexes adopted after 1970
	Title	First adopted on
16	Environmental Protection	2 April 1971
17	Security - Safeguarding International Civil Aviation against Acts of Unlawful Interference	22 March 1974
18	The Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air	26 June 1981
19	Safety Management	25 February 2013

ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) are set out in the 19 Annexes to the Chicago Convention. The development of the SARPs in the Annexes are considered and recommended by the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) for Annex 16 (Environmental Protection), by the Air Transport Committee (ATC) for the following two Annexes: Facilitation (Annex 9) and Security (Annex 17), and by the Air Navigation Commission (ANC) for the other 16 of the 19 Annexes to the Chicago Convention.

The principal responsibility of the Air Navigation Bureau (ANB) is the provision for secretariat of the Air Navigation Commission and the Panels of the ANC, whereas the Air Transport Bureau (ATB) provides Secretariat for the Air Transport Committee and the various ad hoc Committees into which it is divided. The character and volume of the work discharged are thus largely dictated by the requirements of the various Panels, Committees and Working Groups. In addition to the tasks of preparation for the various meetings and the subsequent publications of reports, those Bureaus are also charged with the study of various problems connected with their respective subjects. Seventeen out of nineteen Annexes to the Convention are of a technical nature and fall within the responsibilities of the Air Navigation Bureau and its sections; the remaining two Annexes, Facilitation (Annex 9) and Security (Annex 17), are under the purview of the Air Transport Bureau.

Over the years, the ICAO Council has developed and adopted 19 technical Annexes to the Chicago Convention, most of which are under the responsibility of the Air Navigation Commission. The International Standards and Recommended Practices contained in these annexes are applied universally and have produced a degree of technical uniformity which has enabled international civil aviation to develop in a safe, orderly and efficient manner. In 2014, there were around 12,000 International Standards and Recommended Practices reflected in those Annexes, all of which been agreed by consensus through ICAO; it is through these provisions, as well as ICAO’s complementary policy, auditing and capacity-building efforts, that the air transport system today is able to operate just under 100,000 daily commercial flights, safely and securely, in every world region.

In 2014, ICAO organized its first ever ICAO Council off-site strategy session. The purpose was to determine how ICAO could better communicate with and assist its Member States. One of the major points covered during these meetings was the fact that there are still large discrepancies with respect to how some States implement ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs). As a result, ICAO launched the No Country Left Behind (NCLB) campaign highlighting ICAO’s efforts to assist States in implementing the SARPs. The main goal of this work was to help ensure that SARPs implementation is better harmonized globally so that all States have access to the significant socio-economic benefits of safe and reliable air transport.

The various standards and recommendations that have been adopted by ICAO are grouped into 19 annexes to the Chicago Convention. The aim of most of the annexes is to promote progress in flight safety, particularly by guaranteeing satisfactory minimum standards of training and safety procedures and by ensuring uniform international practices. The 19 annexes are summarized hereafter:

1	Personnel Licensing	Licensing of flight crews, air traffic controllers, and aircraft maintenance personnel
2	Rules of the Air	Rules relating to the conduct of visual and instrument flights
3	Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation	Provision of meteorological services for international air navigation and reporting of meteorological observations from aircraft
4	Aeronautical Charts	Specifications for aeronautical charts for use in international aviation
5	Units of Measurement to be Used in Air and Ground Operations	Dimensional systems to be used in air-ground communications
6	Operation of Aircraft	These specifications will ensure in similar operations throughout the world a level of safety above a prescribed minimum
7	Aircraft Nationality and Registration Marks	Requirements for registration and identification of aircraft
8	Airworthiness of Aircraft	certification and inspection of aircraft according to uniform procedures
9	Facilitation	Simplification of customs, immigration, and health inspection regulations at international airports
10	Aeronautical Telecommunications	Standardization of communications equipment and systems and of communications procedures
11	Air Traffic Services	Establishment and operation of air traffic control, flight information, and alerting services
12	Search and Rescue	Organization and operation of facilities and services necessary for search and rescue
13	Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation	Uniformity in the notification, investigation, and reporting of aircraft accidents
14	Aerodromes	Specifications for the design and equipment of aerodromes
15	Aeronautical Information Services	Methods for the collection and dissemination of aeronautical information required for flight operations
16	Environmental Protection	Aircraft Noise: specifications for aircraft noise certification, noise monitoring, and noise exposure units for land-use planning; Aircraft Engine Emissions: standards relating to vented fuel and emissions certification requirements
17	Security - Safeguarding International Civil Aviation against Acts of Unlawful Interference	Specifications for safeguarding international civil aviation against acts of unlawful interference
18	The Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air	Specifications for the labeling, packing, and shipping of dangerous cargo
19	Safety Management	Safety management responsibilities related to, or in direct support of, the safe operation of aircraft