Key messages: high-level event on small-scale fishers’ rights
By Elisa Morgera
Women fishworkers in Ghana. Photo: Nessim Stevenson
High-Level Event for World Oceans Week 2022
Exploring Challenges, Opportunities and Alliances for the Protection of Small-scale Fishers’ Human Rights
Common challenges
- The lack (and denial) of legal and de facto recognition of customary rights, collective rights, traditional rights, tenure rights, and historical dispossession.
- Lack of information on small-scale fishing rights, permits and permit conditions.
- Insufficient space for small-scale fishers to be able to benefit from meaningful consultations on introducing small-scale fishing rights and adopting fisheries management and conservation measures (even when there are constitutional guarantees to that effect, there is a need to detail the parameters for full and effective consultation in national legislation).
- The negative impact from the COVID-19 pandemic and associated response measures on small-scale fishers, especially their access to marine resources and markets.
- Exclusion of small-scale fishers from fair share of benefits due to exclusion from marine spatial planning, barriers in accessing markets, and employment.
- Multiple public authorities need to protect small-scale fishers’ rights but inter-sectoral coordination among fisheries, other ocean use sectors, human rights, environmental, labour authorities is weak.