Workshop on using arts-based and knowledge-solidarity network approaches for the empowerment of small-scale fishers to have their voice heard

Wednesday, 29 March, 10am-1pm (Rome time)

Register here (event is in-person only)

Venue: Chagall Meeting Room, Hotel Ripa, Via degli Orti di Trastevere, 3, 00153 Rome (details about the hotel here)

Small-scale fishers in many countries have struggled to have their human rights meaningfully recognised in environmental and natural resource governance. One Ocean Hub researchers in South Africa have pioneered participatory and inclusive art-based research methods such as research-based theatre (Empatheatre), alternative mapping, animations, and photo-stories that can be used to create transformative spaces for public dialogue and inclusive social processes. These arts-based approaches are part of the Coastal Justice Network – a nation-wide knowledge-support network of small-scale fishers, Indigenous peoples, researchers, NGOs and legal-aid organisations – that have influenced national courts, local authorities and international processes such as the UN Climate Summit and UN consultations on environmental human rights defenders. This workshop offers participants an introduction to some of these methods, and invites them to explore how arts-based methods can contribute to a strategic process to collective action for a more just and equitable process of ocean governance.

Panellists

Elisa Morgera (Strathclyde University/One Ocean Hub)

Dylan McGarry (Rhodes University/One Ocean Hub/Coastal Justice Network)

Philile Mbatha (University of Cape Town/One Ocean Hub/Coastal Justice Network)

Taryn Pereira (Rhodes University/One Ocean Hub/Coastal Justice Network)

Buhle Frances (Rhodes University/ One Ocean Hub/Coastal Justice Network)

Kira Erwin (Durban University of Technology/One Ocean Hub/Coastal Justice Network)

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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 (hybrid event)

Venue: Chagall Meeting Room, Hotel Ripa, Via degli Orti di Trastevere, 3, 00153 Rome (details about the hotel here)

This hybrid training event on human rights and fisheries is co-organised by the One Ocean Hub with the Danish Institute for Human Rights. It aims at supporting generative collaboration between small-scale fishers, researchers, fisheries specialists, environmental NGOs, human rights practitioners and international and national human rights mechanisms to protect the human rights of small-scale fishers. The training will co-identify gaps and capacity building needs of fisheries and environmental experts interested in working more closely with human rights bodies, which can contribute to develop responsive events and resources. It is hoped that the event and the connections made around it will contribute to new collaborations to implement key recommendations from International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture on the human rights of small-scale fishers; and  the planning of the second Small-Scale Fisheries Summit in 2024.

Panellists

Elisa Morgera (University of Strathclyde, One Ocean Hub) 
Carol Rask (Danish Institute for Human Rights)

Margret Vidar (FAO)

Ana Suarez Dussan (FAO)

Harumi Fuentes Furuya (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)  
Jamsheed Gaziyev (Office of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food) 

Dylan McGarry, Taryn Pereira and Buhle Francis (Rhodes University, One Ocean Hub, Coastal Justice Network) 
Philile Mbatha (University of Cape Town, One Ocean Hub, Coastal Justice Network) 
Kira Erwin (Durban University of Technology, One Ocean Hub, Coastal Justice Network)
Elaine Webster (University of Strathclyde, One Ocean Hub) 

South Africa National Human Rights Institution

Bolanle Erinosho, Sulley Ibrahim, Georgina Yaa Oduro, John Ansah (University of Cape Coast, Ghana; One Ocean Hub)

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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 (hybrid event)

Venue: Queen Juliana room, FAO headquarters

The roundtable will provide an opportunity to discuss the relevance of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies for the legal protection of small-scale fishers. It will consider: the documented negative impacts on small-scale fishers’ human rights of harmful fisheries subsidies, potential negative impacts on them of subsidy removal,  and the need to consider the broader human rights implications of re-investing the funds that will become available from the elimination of fisheries subsidies into the protection of small-scale fishers’ human rights. It is expected that key messages from the event will feed into the meeting of the FAO Sub-Committee on Fisheries Trade scheduled in September 2023 and ongoing WTO negotiations.

Panellists

Nicole Franz (FAO Fisheries)

Audun Lem (FAO Fisheries)

Mariana Toussaint  (FAO Trade and Markets)

Blaise Kuemlangan (FAO Legal Office)

Yon Fernandez Larrinoa (FAO Indigenous Unit)

Mele Tauati (FAO)

Joseph Zelasney (FAO)

Marina Gomei (WWF)

Elaine Webster(Strathclyde University/ One Ocean Hub

Elisa Morgera (Strathclyde University/ One Ocean Hub)

Mitchell Lennan (Aberdeen University/ One Ocean Hub)

Tulika Bansal (Danish Institute for Human Rights)

Stephanie Switzer (Strathclyde University, One Ocean Hub)

Bola Erinosho, Sulley Ibrahim, Gina Oduro, John Ashe (University of Cape Coast, Ghana, One Ocean Hub)

Simon Funge Smith (Senior Fishery Officer, FAO)

Angela Lentisco (Fishery and Aquaculture Officer, FAO)

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Empatheatre performance ‘Lalela uLwandle (Listen to the Sea)’ after the official, high-level closing of IYAFA

Friday, 31 March, 15:30-17:00 (Rome time)

Venue: Flag Room, FAO headquarters

Lalela uLwandle (Listen to the Sea) is a research-based theatre performance and public dialogue event that explores how we may start to build resilience and adaptation to climate change through environmentally just and equitable processes. Whilst grounded in the South African experience, the inter-generational stories of the sea performed in Lalela uLwandle resonate strongly with an international audience. The performance will be followed with a facilitated public-discussion with researchers, performers, decision-makers and the audience on the themes that emerge from the play. Zoom link: to be confirmed if possible.

Empatheatre team

Alison Cassels (Actor, Empatheatre)

Phumelephi Mthombeni (Actor /Director, Empatheatre)

Rory Booth (Actor/Empatheatre)

Dylan McGarry (Director, Empatheatre and Rhodes University, One Ocean Hub)

Kira Erwin (Researcher, Durban University of Technology, One Ocean Hub,)

Taryn-Leigh Pereira-Kaplan (Researcher, Rhodes University, One Ocean Hub)

Buhle Francis (Researcher, Rhodes University, One Ocean Hub)

Philile Mbatha (Researcher University of Cape Town, One Ocean Hub)

Main image, illustration: Noel Keserwany