Speaking at a World Fisheries Day panel discussion he UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, on November 21, Vatican’s Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Cardinal Peter KA Turkson, noted that the church should not remain silent to human rights abuses in the fishing sector.
Recently, a report by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) presented ‘ten principles for global transparency in the fishing industry’. These principles aims to tackle illegal fishing and protect human rights in the industry.
The ten principles are the following:
- Give all vessels a unique number;
- Make vessel tracking data public;
- Publish lists of fishing licences and authorisations;
- Publish punishments handed out for fisheries crimes;
- Ban transferring fish between boats at sea – unless pre-authorised and carefully monitored;
- Set up a digital database of vessel information;
- Stop the use of flags of convenience for fishing vessels;
- Publish details of the true owners of each vessel;
- Punish anyone involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
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Commenting on the fishery sector, Cardinal Turkson mentioned that currently the industry is committed to mitigate some of the problems , such as product certification. However, these attempts are not enough, because several governments have not ratified international instruments which aim to assist the fishermen.
He specifically said that among the great challenges are the way that people are treated in the sector, which includes physical and verbal abuses, exploitation, forced labour, or even human trafficking.
Moreover, Cardinal Turkson suggested the establishment of a roadmap to advance widespread ratification of the international treaties to tackle abuse in the fishing sector. He also called all parties to cooperate and stop human trafficking and forced labour at sea.
According the Food and Agriculture Organization, about 59.6 million people are working in fisheries and aquaculture work, providing around 171 million tonnes of fish to the market.
