Background

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​You haven’t heard anybody’s story until you’ve heard them tell it. This session will be a screening of the film “Before You Eat”, a 47-minute participatory storytelling and documentary on the plight of migrant fishers working on distant water fishing (DWF) fleets, including accounts of illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing and worker exploitation.

 

Seafarers including fishers working on foreign vessels are considered migrant workers, as they work overseas for economic reasons along with its entailing vulnerabilities. Nowadays whether at land and sea setting, the revealed facts of human trafficking, forced labor, and other exploitation phenomena that can be categorized as modern forms of slavery are just the tip of the iceberg. Forced labor at sea goes side by side with illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices.

 

​Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing remains one of the greatest threats to marine ecosystems due to its potent ability to undermine national and regional efforts to manage fisheries sustainably as well as endeavors to conserve marine biodiversity. IUU fishing takes advantage of corrupt administrations and exploits weak management regimes, in particular those of developing countries lacking the capacity and resources for effective monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS). In addition to IUU fishing, the activities of fishers and vessels that engage in IUU fishing can constitute, lead to, or go hand-in-hand with, other crimes. The examples of other crimes here are fisheries-related crimes and crimes associated with the fisheries sector, where human trafficking is a part of. 

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​The International Labour Organization (ILO) states that a string of recent reports indicate that forced labor and human trafficking in the fisheries sector are a severe problem. These reports suggest that fishers, many of them migrant workers, are vulnerable to severe forms of human rights abuse on board fishing vessels. Migrant workers in particular are vulnerable to being deceived and coerced by brokers and recruitment agencies and forced to work on board vessels under the threat of force or by means of debt bondage.

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​Greenpeace Southeast Asia (GPSEA), Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (SBMI), and Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) Indonesia welcomed the issuance of the ASEAN Declaration on the Placement and Protection of Migrant Fishers (on 10th May 2023) adopted by leaders of member states during the 42nd ASEAN Summit held in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. The declaration follows years of active campaigning by human rights advocates and civil society organizations including trade unions in the region to push for stronger policies to protect the rights of Southeast Asian migrants working in fisheries.

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Prior to this development, in November 2020, GPSEA and its allies, including Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) - Indonesia and Serikat Buruh Migran Indonesia (SBMI) started developing the “Working Paper on Ratifying and Implementing ILO Convention 188 for ASEAN Member States” with an aim to highlight the significance of ASEAN’s role in ending modern slavery at sea. GPSEA has also established some engagements with some of the ASEAN bodies which then led to a webinar, “Ending Modern Slavery at Sea: What is ASEAN’s Role?” on 3rd December 2020, where representatives from ASEAN bodies and several organizations and institutions gave feedback to the initial draft of the Working Paper. After further discussions, review by the authors, and considering all inputs from various stakeholders, the working paper was officially launched and submitted to ASEAN by September 2021.

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With further joint and collaborative efforts, GPSEA, HRWG and SBMI launched the report titled “Omission of Modern Slavery: A Study on Human Rights Violations of Vessel Crews in Southeast Asia”  in March 2022, which substantially discusses and highlights the importance of human rights based approaches (HRBA) in ending the IUU Fishing and Forced Labor at Seas practices. Among key recommendations, the study also critically examined the need of ASEAN Member States to promote United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) to prevent and address human rights violations in business practices. These guidelines must be socialized to the vessel owners, captain, and crews. The guidelines explain the business sector’s responsibility to continuously protect, respect, and provide access to remedy for the victims.

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​The human rights-based approach (HRBA) is a conceptual framework for the process of human development that is normatively based on international human rights standards and operationally directed to promoting and protecting human rights.​

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Objectives

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• Mainstream migrant fishers’ issues to a wider audience, including key decision-makers in governments, businesses, and other key stakeholders to the issues of forced labor and human rights abuses of migrant fishers onboard DWF fleets, including the urgency and importance of the establishment of effective access to justice and remedy mechanisms for the fishers.

• Consolidate diverse insights, inclusive perspectives and collective actions from the Asia-Pacific region stakeholders in mainstreaming human rights-based approaches to end illegal fishing and forced labor at sea practices at all levels of fisheries management.

• Strengthen the solidarity, collaborative efforts, and multi-stakeholder joint campaign in  developing the guidelines for the effective implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Placement and Protection of Migrant Fishers as well as the ratification of International Labour Organization (ILO) C188 - Work in Fishing Convention, and the mainstreaming of UNGP Business and Human Rights by key fishing nations and seafood-producing countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

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Key questions

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• What is the role of participatory storytelling and film-making, and the arts in general, in raising awareness on the issues at the intersection of business and human rights?

• What are the challenges encountered by migrant fishers in seeking remedies for their issues and grievances e.g. human trafficking, forced labor, labor and human rights abuses, etc.? How are these challenges addressed by the different stakeholders involved e.g. migrant fishers, labor and human rights advocates, business, etc.?

• What are the connections between ocean protection and human rights? How are the issues of forced labor at sea and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing being addressed? What are some of the remedies as well as the challenges encountered in seeking remedies in relation to these?

• How could the ASEAN Declaration on the Placement and Protection of Migrant Fishers be used as a tool/platform to propose, establish, and access remedies for migrant fishers’ issues and grievances within ASEAN Member States? What are the latest developments and updates about the Declaration, including what should be included in the implementation plan?

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Format

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​You haven’t heard anybody’s story until you’ve heard them tell it. This session will be a screening of the film.