Certification as strategy: human rights, regulatory gaps, and foreign policy in Indonesia’s fight against IUU fishing

Why do states adopt human rights certification regimes, and how do these instruments become entangled with foreign policy strategy? This article examines Indonesia’s Fisheries Human Rights Certification, introduced following the 2015 Benjina slavery scandal, as a state-led response to governance failures linking labour exploitation with illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Drawing on document tracking, interviews, and focus group discussions in Indonesia, the article argues that the certification in the fisheries sector serves two interrelated functions: first, as a regulatory response to overlapping mandates and legal gaps in labour protection; second, as a foreign policy instrument to promote Indonesia’s leadership in rights-based maritime governance in Southeast Asia. By reconceptualizing certification through the lens of state strategy, the article contributes to broader debates on transnational governance and the evolving role of the state in setting regulatory agendas beyond market logic.