FishWise recently organized a plenary and luncheon to facilitate collaboration among stakeholders working to address human rights and labor issues within different aspects of the seafood industry.

On February 10th, six panelists examined the complexity of such issues during the plenary “Preventing Human Rights Abuses In Seafood Supply Chains” at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit in New Orleans. The panel summarized the conditions that allow human rights abuses to persist in the seafood industry, discussed the difficulties in improving labor issues in seafood supply chains, and provided suggestions for companies looking to strengthen the social components of their purchasing agreements.

Next Steps to Address Human Rights Abuses in Seafood Supply Chains: Meeting Summary (PDF), February 10th, 2015

FishWise executive director Tobias Aguirre led the plenary on Preventing Human Rights Abuses in Seafood Supply Chains (Photo: Lucas Lee Graham, Boat Drink Llc.)

Following the plenary, Humanity United, the Freedom Fund, and FishWise co-hosted a multi-stakeholder meeting to discuss next steps to address human rights abuses in seafood supply chains. It was attended by representatives from the seafood industry that have expressed interest in improving human rights within sustainable seafood, as well as representatives from the conservation community, funders, and key members of government. Building on the momentum from the human rights plenary, participants shared observations and reflections, discussed two topics that have risen to the top of recent discussions (tools & resources and pre-competitive discussions), and worked in small groups to identify next steps that would help to address these important issues. Given the diversity of participants, this interactive session focused on broadly gathering ideas, rather than choosing or prioritizing.

Download the meeting notes here (PDF).