Norton Rose Fulbright provides pro bono support for Geneva Declaration on Human Rights at Sea

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright provided pro bono support for the Geneva Declaration on Human Rights at Sea, which launched on March 1, 2022.

The firm’s transport disputes team helped to coordinate and participated in the first commercial legal review of the Declaration and its Guidelines for Promoting Compliance with Human Rights at Sea.

Developed by UK-based NGO Human Rights at Sea, the Declaration aims to generate global awareness and an international response to human rights violations at sea – ranging from piracy and criminal violence to breaches of maritime labour rights, trafficking and child labour – and ensure effective remedy for victims

Given the challenging and under-regulated nature of the global maritime environment, abuse of human rights at sea is often inadequately reported, enforced or remedied.

The Declaration promotes compliance with human rights at sea by providing port states, coastal states, and flag states with guidance to help expand human rights protections and support the vision to end abuse.

It is structured around the understanding that the protection of human rights at sea rests on four fundamental principles:

1. Human rights at sea are universal; they apply at sea, as they do on land.
2. All persons at sea, without any distinction, are entitled to their human rights.
3. There are no maritime specific reasons for denying human rights at sea.
4. All human rights established under both treaty and customary international law must be respected at sea.

For more information about the project, including the full Declaration, visit the Human Rights at Sea website.