Throughout the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA) in 2022, there has been a significant rapprochement of the fisheries, environmental and human rights communities of practice to improve the protection of small-scale fishers’ (SSFs) human rights. At the end of 2022, we published together with FAO and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights a policy brief to underscore the opportunities for policy coherence and SDG synergies arising from the coherent protection of SSF’s human rights.

Genuinely engaging with small-scale fishers’ lived experiences, living memories and knowledge, including those of women and children, is essential to understand the multiple threats to their basic rights, from within and outside the fisheries sector. But it is also essential to understand the multiple threats to ocean health and to value SSFs’ contributions to everyone’s human right to a healthy environment.

As we reach the official closing of IYAFA, we evaluate progress towards build long-lasting alliances for sustainable fisheries and SSF’s human rights protection as a matter of general public interest. See our updated IYAFA webpage.

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Prof Elisa Morgera

Director, One Ocean Hub
elisa.morgera@strath.ac.uk

• Workshop on using arts-based and knowledge-solidarity network approaches for the empowerment of small-scale fishers to have their voice heard (in person only). | Wednesday, 29 March, 10am-1pm (Rome time). REGISTER HERE

• Hybrid training event on the international and national avenues for the legal empowerment of small-scale fishers (co-organised by the One Ocean Hub with the Danish Institute for Human Rights). | Wednesday, 29 March, 2-4pm (Rome time). REGISTER HERE

• Roundtable on the relevance of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies for the legal protection of small-scale fisheries (co-organised by the One Ocean Hub with the Danish Institute for Human Rights, with technical inputs from FAO). | Friday, 31 March, 9-11am (Rome time). REGISTER HERE

First joint policy brief by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the Hub on small-scale fishers’ human rights.

We are delighted to announce that our knowledge-translation platform, One Ocean Learn, is hosting a new art exhibition based on the One Ocean Hub’s project Fishers’ Tales. We have selected eight artworks and stories that illuminate the inter-connections between small-scale fishers’ civil and political rights and their economic, social, cultural and environmental rights. The selection also explores small-scale fishers’ contributions to sustainable fisheries, the impacts on their livelihoods and cultures of climate change and racism, and their inter-generational transmission of knowledge.

Integrating communities’ customary laws into marine small-scale fisheries governance in Ghana: Reflections on the FAO Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries By Golo HK, Ibrahim S, Erinosho B. (2022). Published in Review of European, Comparative, & International Law.

READ HERE

Casting the net wider? The transformative potential of integrating human rights into the implementation of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies By Switzer S, Morgera E & Webster E. (2022). Published in Review of European, Comparative, & International Law.

READ HERE

A fleet based surplus production model that accounts for increases in fishing power with application to two West African pelagic stocks By Cook R, Acheampong E, Aggrey-Fynn J, Heath M. (2021). Published in Fisheries Research

READ HERE

Tackling the challenges confronting women in the Elmina fishing community of Ghana: A human rights framework By Golo HK and Erinosho B. (2023). Published in Marine Policy.

READ HERE

International legal requirements for environmental and socio-cultural assessments for large-scale industrial fisheries By Nakamura J, Diz D & Morgera E. (2022). Published in Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law.

READ HERE

Shedding a Light on the Human Rights of Small-scale Fisherfolk: Complementarities and Contrasts between the UN Declaration on Peasants’ Rights and the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines in Brunori et al, Commentary on the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (Routledge, 2022) Published with Taylor Francis E-books.

READ HERE

• FAO e-learning course Legal and policy considerations for sustainable small-scale fisheries (published in October 2022)  AVAILABLE HERE

• FAO Policy and Legal Diagnostic Tool READ MORE 

For the first time the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights addressed the World Ocean Day community, as part of an event where the Hub, FAO and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment engaged in a dialogue with small-scale fisher (SSF) leaders from around the world on their needs, challenges and contributions as environmental human rights defenders.

The film explores how the One Ocean Hub works with small-scale fishers, UN agencies and other partners to protect small-scale fishers and their communities human rights during the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries (IYAFA) and beyond.

• The human rights dimensions of oceans crimes and its impact on small-scale fishers WATCH HERE
• Oceans, Art and Environmental Defenders WATCH HERE
• Critical Human Rights Issues at the Ocean-Climate Nexus. WATCH HERE

Led by the One Ocean Hub for the UN Climate COP27 Virtual Ocean Pavilion), 14 November 2022

At the 4th World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress Africa, 21 November 2023.

‘Advancing the protection of small-scale fisher rights at national and international level’ organised by the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), One Ocean Hub and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): the first webinar focused on national human rights institutions WATCH HERE and the second on international human rights mechanisms   WATCH HERE