Center for Seafarers’ Rights promotes the duty to rescue and call for action on fishing vessel safety at the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
New York – April 25, 2002. Douglas B. Stevenson, the Director of the Center for Seafarers’ Rights of the Seamen’s Church Institute, spoke today about the duty of vessels to rescue those in distress at sea and to show the same concern for those who fish as they do to dwindling marine species at the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea conference. He was the only non-government speaker on the agenda.
Highlights from Mr. Stevenson’s comments to the United Nations: One of the most cherished and protected maritime traditions is a mariners’ obligation to go to the aid of all persons in distress at sea, without regard to their nationality, status or religion. Customary maritime law, international conventions and domestic laws of nations have also established a legal duty to assist persons in distress at sea. The United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) in Article 98, requires that masters must render assistance to any person found in danger of being lost at sea and must proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress, provided they can do so without serious danger to their own ships, crews or passengers. The Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) in Chapter V, Regulation 10, requires the master of every merchant and private vessel to speed to the assistance of persons in distress.
The Seamen’s Church Institute is very concerned that no action be taken by any state that might create a disincentive for vessels to respond to a distress at sea. We have dealt with cases where port states have placed unreasonable financial burdens on ships that have gone to the aid of persons in distress at sea, either by refusing entry or by imposing financial responsibility for feeding, housing and repatriating shipwrecked persons who were allowed entry. Such unreasonable financial burdens on rescueing vessels establishes a negative precedent for those masters and shipowners not to comply with their moral and legal obligation to rescue persons in distress at sea.
Turning to fishing vessel safety, commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. According to ILO estimates, 24,000 fatalities occur in fisheries worldwide each year. The FAO reports that non-fatal injuries are also very common in the fishing industry, and in spite of the high numbers reported, it is clear to FAO that these injuries are grossly under-reported.
We believe that a fragmented fishing industry coupled with a lack of political will by states has resulted in few, if any, national or international fishing vessel safety regulations. From our experience, when regulatory bodies attempt to draft standards for fishing vessels, there is a reluctance to proceed because fisheries interests are usually not well represented in the meetings. When attempts are made to include fisheries interests, the various competing sectors of the fishing industry seem to agree only on their abhorrence of being regulated and the debate then turns from fishing vessel safety to resource allocation.
The IMO, ILO and FAO have attempted to address some of the fishing vessel safety issues in the Torremolinos Convention and the STCW-F Convention, but neither of these conventions has come into force because of insufficient ratifications.
Meanwhile, men and women who work on fishing vessels continue to be maimed and killed at alarming rates.
It is high time for the community of nations to say: “enough is enough”! I urge you to create at least the same political will to protect human beings on fishing vessels as, for example, was demonstrated in protecting dwindling fish stocks.
We need to focus our attention on protecting the men and women whose workplace is the sea.
When mariners’ health, safety or welfare is in jeopardy, we look to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to protect them. The UNCLOS lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world’s oceans and seas. It is an international regime that not only provides benefits to individual states and the world economy, but it also imposes obligations on states. For the regime to be effective, all states that use the oceans must adopt its rules. States that are not parties to the Convention should be encouraged to ratify and implement it. In situations where UNCLOS does not address a particular need, States Parties should make use of the framework provided in the Convention to develop specific areas of the law of the sea. In situations where changing the UNCLOS would be inappropriate, states should consider developing consistent model national legislation. When one flag state does not honor its obligations under UNCLOS, all States Parties are affected.
In such situations, particularly in instances where persons’ rights and safety are involved, the community of nations, as well as individual nations, must step in to protect the seas’ most valuable resource: the human beings who live and work on ships.
The Seamen’s Church Institute’s mission is to advance the personal, professional, and spiritual well being of mariners worldwide. Established in 1834, SCI is an ecumenical agency affiliated with the Episcopal Church. To learn more about SCI’s ministry, please go to www.seamenschurch.org.
Before joining the Seamen’s Church Institute in 1990, Mr. Stevenson served 20 years as a U.S. Coast Guard Officer, retiring as a Commander. While in the Coast Guard, he served in a variety of legal and operational assignments, including command at sea and a diplomatic post at the United States Mission to the United Nations. He is a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy and the University of Miami School of Law.