On April 16^th 2024, Taiwan Fisheries Agency held “International Forum on Fisheries and Human Rights” at Grand Hilai Hotel in Kaohsiung, which invited domestic and international scholars, representative institutions of both origin countries of crew members and market countries in Taiwan, in addition to industry representatives and civil society organizations for information exchange. The forum aimed to demonstrate Taiwan’s implementation of “Action Plan for Fisheries and Human Rights”, and other countries’ experience and challenge of promoting the International Labour Organisation's Working in Fishing Convention (ILO-C188). In addition, the discussions during the forum also focused on methods for countries to balance sustainable fisheries development with safeguarding the rights and benefits of crew members.

　　National Chung Cheng University assisted the agency in holding the forum, which experts, scholars, industry representatives, and civil society organizations from the United Kingdom, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Switzerland, as well as Taiwan’s participants were invited. In addition, representative institutions of origin countries of crew members and market countries, such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, the European Union, and the United States were also invited to attend the forum. The discussions during the forum focused on three primary topics, including "Achievements of implementing Action Plan for Fisheries and Human Rights", "Promoting the ILO-C188 Convention: Reform Experiences and Policy Actions" and "Implementation and Challenges of ILO-C188", which aimed to exchange the experience related to safeguarding crew members’ rights and benefits, developing sustainable fisheries and promoting ILO-C188.

　　Ping-Cheng, Lo, the Minister without Portfolio of Executive Yuan, indicated that Taiwan initiated its first "National Human Rights Action Plan" and “Action Plan for Fisheries and Human Rights” in 2022. The nation also proactively incorporates ILO-C188 into domestic law, which demonstrates that crew members’ rights and benefits are highly valued. In addition, Taiwan’s government is currently incorporating International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, which the protection not only to migrant crew members, but also to all the migrant workers will be enhanced in the future. In the speech presented by Junne-Jih, Chen, the Acting Minister of Ministry of Agriculture, stating that Taiwan is an ocean country of which fisheries are considered to be important. However, the nature of fisheries is different and challenging while comparing with works on land. Taiwan has proactively implemented “Action Plan for Fisheries and Human Rights”, in order to systematically enhance migrant crew members’ rights with cross-authorities cooperation related to requiring direct payment of salary, ensuring minimum wages and working hours, constructing living facilities for crew member at ports and enhancing management of FOC vessels. Therefore, international and domestic experts and scholars were invited to the forum for the purpose of improving relevant measures by reviewing the implementation of the plan and mutually learning from each other.

　　Taiwan Fisheries Agency indicates that ILO-C188 is one of the most significant conventions related to safeguarding the rights and benefits of crew members onboard fishing vessels. The convention was entered into forced on November 16^th 2017, and currently, there are 21 countries signing the convention. To demonstrate that human rights are the foundation of Taiwan, it proactively incorporates ILO-C188 into domestic law and creates opportunities to interchange information internationally, which aims to make Taiwan’s practices be in line with international standards. Through the international forum, Taiwan could learn the practical experience of other countries, making the progress of incorporating the Working in Fishing convention be more successful.

　　　　Contact person: Xue Poyuan

　　　　Email: poyuan0720@ms1.fa.gov.tw

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