A practical take on the duty to uphold human rights in seafood workplaces

Too many fishing crew have died aboard vessels known for fisheries crime. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the ‘fundamental’ rights of all people working in the seafood sector and the business duty to prevent rights violations, as it is organized as minimum workplace procedures that are legally-established in international law, in customary use and effective. The authours searched for workplace guidance for respecting rights and then conducted research to identify the legal minimums that states have signed and ratified as essential, and are also in scope of the business duty that is set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, 2011. The result is a short list of workplace procedures which are: (1) intended to prevent rights violations particularly forced labour, (2) suited to diverse types of operations in different languages, customs or circumstances, (3) appropriate to all people in a seafood workplace whether they hold a contract or not, and that allow for (4) tracking labour conditions in ways which could be verified by the people working therein or their representatives. To uphold fundamental rights in seafood workplaces, employers are to provide rights training for all new recruits in a language they understand, a safe, responsive channel for workplace grievances linking into the line of command, provisions for safe work in hazardous conditions, and among others, safe passage for individuals choosing to leave. At sea as on land, every individual has fundamental rights to legally-established assurances in seafood workplaces.