One Ocean Hub partners with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

The One Ocean Hub, together with UN partners the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Environment Programme, have engaged the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in a partnership to organize a series of engagements to strengthen the recognition and protection of human rights of small-scale fishers and their communities during the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture. The joint programme of work is meant to advance understanding of the multiple threats to the rights of small-scale fishers to have a voice in decisions affecting their lives, health, culture and livelihoods, and garner further support for small-scale fishers that act as environmental human rights defenders.

The Hub will share key research insights and support small-scale fisheries representatives and advocates to voice their human rights concerns in preparation for a high-level event at World Ocean Week 2022, where relevant UN Special Rapporteurs will be invited.

In addition, the Hub will organize a series of workshops in April 2022 on the integration of small-scale fishers’ human rights, including in terms of customary laws and tangible/intangible cultural heritage, in Strategic Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Assessments, Marine Protected Areas, and Marine Spatial Planning.

Later in the year, the Hub will also co-organize a workshop on fostering cooperation among relevant UN Bodies in the mutually supportive interpretation and implementation of the SSF Guidelines and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants, as well as contribute with virtual art exhibitions.

Further information about this story (including relevant points of contact), together with other environmental law-related news stories, can be found at the website of the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance.