Insights from a community of practice: Integrating human rights in fisheries improvement

A recent article authored by Williams and Sparks suggests that fishery improvement projects (FIPs) “as currently constituted and reported, will not be an effective part of the fight against labour exploitation and abuses in global industrial fisheries.” We wish to reinforce their argument that driving social responsibility improvements in global fisheries requires a systemic approach combining genuine worker representation, mandatory human rights due diligence, enforceable and legally binding agreements, changes to purchasing practices, and the ratification and implementation of international labor and human rights conventions, and we acknowledge that the FIP model alone will fall short of this. Based on our collective experience working towards social improvements in fisheries, we wish to bring a slightly more nuanced perspective to bear to demonstrate the critical importance of using a human rights-based approach in fisheries’ sustainability efforts across industrial and artisanal contexts. We structure this response by revisiting each of the main points Williams and Sparks raise, bringing in our own experiences and additional evidence to build upon their original remarks, suggesting: there is a need for continuous monitoring and improvements in dynamic risk environments; voluntary measures can lead to and buttress mandatory and legally binding measures; diverse fisheries require diverse approaches; and humans are inextricably linked to fisheries, thus effective and enduring solutions must consider human wellbeing and environmental sustainability in tandem. We end with a call to action with explicit roles and responsibilities for different actors inside and outside of the Fishery Improvement Project context to support binding and enforceable agreements between buyers and fishworker representative organizations, advancing human and labor rights protections in seafood supply chains.