Fishers' rights

For millions of people around the world, fishing is a way of life. Depletion of fish stocks and environmental damage caused by irresponsible fishing threaten this way of life. If future generations are to enjoy the harvest of the sea, there must be a universal commitment to responsible fishing.

Fishers’ rights

Numerous international agreements exist to protect the rights of fishers. As part of the pastoral care offerred to fishers and their communities, AOS works to ensure that they know their rights and are able to claim them. This is not easy when these rights are codified in various different agreements and frameworks of administration.

On 14 June 2007, the 96th session of the International Labour Conference heralded a significant development in the field of fishers’ rights. The Conference voted to adopt the Work in Fishing Convention which aims to bring fair and decent working conditions to the world’s fishers.

click here to read about the Work in Fishing Convention

The right to fish

The most important agreement concerning the resources of the sea is the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Convention establishes that coastal states have sovereign rights to natural resources, including fish, within a 200-nautical mile radius. This area is called an “exclusive economic zone” or EEZ.

Outside of EEZs, Article 116 of the Convention famously states:

“All states have the right for their nationals to engage in fishing on the high seas.”

These rights are subject to existing treaty obligations and further qualified in Articles 117-9 which invoke “obligations to co-operate regarding conservation of living resources”.

Subsequent international and multilateral agreements cover responsible fishing and conservation of stocks. However, UNCLOS does not contain any implementation measures: participation is voluntary. States which choose not to respect the Convention may be seen to gain economic advantage.

IUU fishing

Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU fishing) takes place without regard to the international agreements about such questions as human and labour rights; protection of the environment; and conservation of fish stocks.

Illegal and unreported fishing takes place in both EEZs of countries and on the high seas. The problem is most serious within EEZs of developing countries who may not have the means to prevent it. This kind of criminal activity can be devastating to traditional fishers and coastal communities.

Unregulated fishing takes place on the high seas because there is no satisfactory system of global governance. The High Seas Task Force is an international group of fisheries ministries and NGOs working to find solutions to the problem of IUU fishing on the high seas. They estimate that value of IUU catches is between four and nine billion US dollars per year.