Abstract
Fishers, fishworker organizations, and supporting civil society organizations have played a critical role in the recent agreement by the international community of an international soft-law instrument that explicitly calls for the adoption of a human rights-based approach (HRBA) in small-scale fisheries development: the Voluntary Guidelines on Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). This chapter reviews some of the controversial views that have been expressed by social scientists about pursuing a HRBA in general and in small-scale fisheries specifically. While the experience of applying a HRBA in small-scale fisheries is still very limited, some concrete cases are presented where human rights advocacy and human rights law have helped fishing communities in defending their rights to livelihood, food, and culture.
The text of this chapter reflects the views of the authors and should not be attributed in any form to their current or former employer.
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Notes
- 1.
The critique of neoliberal policy is not confined to its tendency to heighten maldistribution of incomes and wealth. Even in terms of strengthening economic growth, the view of Harvard economist Dani Rodrik is increasingly recognized among policy-makers. Based on thorough research he concluded that economic growth is not so much triggered by a long list of reforms as expressed in the so-called ‘Washington Consensus’ but often happens as a result of ‘eclectic solutions’ that combine the roles of the market and government and is often triggered by one or a few changes. Thus, there are many pathways to growth, not a single set of institutions and reforms that are necessary for growth (Loungani 2016).
- 2.
In Sen’s capability approach, functionings are the states and activities constitutive of a person’s being, i.e. being healthy, working in a good job, having self-respect, and being happy. Capability entails the freedom to achieve valuable functionings (Sen 1999).
- 3.
The UN Human Rights Council has endorsed in June 2011 the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights which should be implemented in a non-discriminatory manner, with particular attention to the rights and needs of … individuals from groups or populations that may be at heightened risk of becoming vulnerable or marginalized, and with due regard to the different risks that may be faced by women and men (UN 2011).
- 4.
Neoliberalism commonly refers to market-oriented reform policies such as removing price controls, deregulating capital markets, lowering trade barriers, and curtailing state influence on the economy, especially through privatization and austerity policies. In fisheries, neoliberal policies are often associated with the introduction of individual transferable quota management systems that establish quasi private property rights which can have a number of adverse impacts such as concentrating ownership, transfer of ownership to outsiders and investors or processing companies, blocking the entry of young fishers because of high quota prices, and others. A detailed review of the influence of neoliberal policies in North American small-scale fisheries is provided by Pinkerton and Davis (2015) and other authors in the same issue of Marine Policy.
- 5.
Einarsson (2011) discusses in detail how the Icelandic ITQ policy allocated collective wealth unfairly to individuals and violated basic principles of human rights. According to him the de facto privatization of fishery resources in Iceland through the ITQ management regime was an important factor of exposing Iceland to the vagaries of international financial markets and the 2008 financial crisis that took a heavy toll on its economy.
- 6.
For this chapter ‘fish’ includes all non-mammalian aquatic living organisms.
- 7.
To marry economic and environmental sustainability fishing at maximum economic yield is where fishery resource rent is maximized and where, theoretically in most cases, stock size is kept at a level above that which produces maximum sustainable yield.
- 8.
Parallels can be drawn between the SSF Guidelines and the Rochdale Principles, a set of ideals for the operation of cooperatives first laid down in 1844 and on which, with two revisions in 1966 and 1995, co-operatives around the world continue to operate.
- 9.
Text taken from Franz et al. 2015.
- 10.
Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 2012-6-27.
- 11.
Summary available at: http://www.escr-net.org/node/364959
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Willmann, R., Franz, N., Fuentevilla, C., McInerney, T.F., Westlund, L. (2017). A Human Rights-Based Approach to Securing Small-Scale Fisheries: A Quest for Development as Freedom. In: Jentoft, S., Chuenpagdee, R., Barragán-Paladines, M., Franz, N. (eds) The Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines. MARE Publication Series, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55074-9_2
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