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 offered to
fishers and their communities, the Apostleship of the Sea 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.
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.
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