"Flag States & Human Rights Report 2019: Protecting Human Rights at Sea" June 2019

Human Rights at Sea...with the University of Bristol Law School Human Rights Implementation Centre...issues the second independent public report: ‘An evaluation of Flag State Practice in Monitoring, Reporting and Enforcing Human Rights Obligations on Board Vessels’ as part of an ongoing study into the engagement, policies and remedies affected by flag States in relation to their duties to uphold human rights at sea.

This year Panama, Denmark and Taiwan have been reviewed...

In comparison to Denmark and Panama, Taiwan’s lack of ratification of the core UN, Maritime and Labour Conventions represents a...gap in the protection of human rights at sea. However...Denmark or Panama...both have...shortcomings or distinctive issues arising from their human rights coverage...

.... While the maritime authorities have the main responsibility of ensuring the effectiveness of the flag states’ monitoring and reporting systems...these mechanisms are not always sufficiently implemented...

Human Rights at Sea commented: “This second comprehensive report on flag States and the role that they should and indeed need to take in terms of protecting human rights at sea, highlights inadequacies which need to be rectified. Further, the lack of direct engagement to fair and reasonable enquiry, demonstrates further failures of accessibility and transparency. There were similar such findings in the 2018 Report.”